I recently read a very interesting article about the decline in attention spans and the ability to focus.
The writer of the article started by telling us how he honoured a promise he made to his 15 year old godson and took him to Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland.
Apparently his godson was a big Elvis lover when he was nine and asked his godfather if he would take him to Graceland one day.
The trip was not just to honour the promise; it was to help the young boy who was having a few issues. He had dropped out of school and was lost in a world of social media, porn and messaging apps.
For the trip to Graceland there was one condition which was agreed upon by the writer and his godson… phones would not be used during the day.
Unfortunately, the young lad interpreted that as ‘not making phone calls’ during the day, he didn’t think that it applied to sending messages or scrolling through social media.
As soon as they landed in the USA, his phone was out of his pocket and he was busy checking and sending messages.
After observing the behaviour of his godson, and his own behaviour, the writer realised that people are losing the ability to focus on one thing for any length of time.
People struggle to pay attention to one single thing for more than a few minutes at the most.
Very few pay attention to the world around them. They are lost in a world of screens flashing up messages, bite sized stories and videos.
This realisation motivated the writer to travel the world and talk to the experts studying the decline in attention and the scientists who were monitoring the affect modern technology and social media was having on people.
Let’s just say… it’s not looking good.
Studies show that the attention spans and ability to maintain focus has reduced dramatically. One leading French scientist, Prof Barbara Demeneix, declared: “There is no way we can have a normal brain today”.
A small study showed that a group of college students could only focus on any one task for 65 seconds.
Another small study involving office workers found that they could only focus for an average of three minutes.
What is interesting about those two studies are the ages… students are younger than office workers and are more likely to spend more time online chatting to people and watching videos on platforms like Tiktok.
Is the fact the students have an attention and focus span less than half that of the older office workers proof that this is getting worse?
All the experts conclude that the decline in our ability to focus and pay attention for any length of time is not because individually we are becoming weak-willed, it’s because our attention and focus was STOLEN.
The technology has made it way too easy to be distracted by fun and entertaining content.
What’s worse is the fact that all social media platforms are designed to keep you scrolling and prevent you from leaving.
The Dopamine High
With the constant notification of ‘Likes’, ‘Comments’, ‘ Shares’, Loves’ and ‘Retweets’ etc, people’s egos are being stroked… or kicked… and brain chemicals such as dopamine, responsible for feeling pleasure, are being released over and over again throughout the day.
Dopamine release in people is happing far more often than it ever used to.
Dopamine is one of the pleasure chemicals which are released when people take drugs to get high and escape from the harsh realities of the world.
Social media and instant entertainment has replaced chemical drugs.
People are becoming addicts, hooked on the next fix of dopamine.
They are compelled to check their messages and their socials or watch one more cat video so that there is a quick dopamine release and they can feel ‘happy’ again… briefly.
The problem is that this addiction to dopamine release through the constant access to social media and entertainment, is robbing us of our ability to focus and pay attention to anything else for any length of time.
This is not good for people… and it’s most certainly not good for the achievement of success.
Success is the reward for constantly doing specific things consistently… something which is going to be hard to do when your attention and focus is being eroded away by the need for the next dopamine fix!
The downside to addiction is that when you don’t get your fix, you can become irritable, cranky and sometimes even depressed.
You crave more of the ‘good stuff’ and when you don’t get it, you go into withdrawal.
Basically, just like a heroin addict, you get cravings and start ‘clucking’ for the next fix. This is also a state which robs a person of their ability to stay focused and pay attention to what they are doing.
I have said many times that the smartphones and tablets we have at our disposal, and the social media platforms we have free access to are incredibly powerful tools we can use to achieve success and/or financial freedom… but we have to be aware that they can also be responsible for causing people to fail.
They can destroy our chances of success because of the ease of access to entertainment and the way they are designed to keep us ‘stuck’ in a dopamine driven perpetual cycle of scrolling and watching.
To become successful using these incredibly powerful tools, we are now required to develop a stronger discipline and a mindset which helps us to see that they are tools to be use, and to understand that we can get lost in a dopamine fuelled rabbit hole of pointless posts, videos, and conversations if we are not careful.
Retrain Your Brain
The decline in our ability to focus on the job at…er … at… hmmm… what was I doing?
Oh yes! …
The decline in our ability to focus on the job at hand and pay attention to what we are doing and what is going on around us can be prevented and reversed.
If you feel that your ability to focus and pay attention for any length of time is on the decline then you need to retrain your brain.
You need to relearn what you could once do naturally.
And that is done by taking time out from phones and tablets and reducing the amount of distractions around you.
Put your phone or tablet on a shelf and go read a book in another room where you cannot access it without having to get up from your chair and walk a distance to it.
If you are working on one device, whether it is your laptop, phone or tablet, put the others away where you cannot access them without having to walk and get them.
Set a timer and know that you cannot look at any social media platforms until the alarm has sounded.
Start at five minutes – which is two minutes longer than the three minutes the study found to be an average length for office staff – and increase the time as you improve.
Studying and practicing ‘mindfulness’ could be a huge help in increasing your ability to focus and your attention span.
Mindfulness teaches people to pay attention to the moment and to focus on only what you are doing at that time. It is an exercise and like all exercises, the more you do the stronger and better you become.
The modern world is damaging the attention spans and focusing skills of billions of people… but the good news is that it can be repaired.
If you are looking for a great read to help you with your retraining, a book which will teach you a lot more about life… check out Stuart Goldsmith’s Beyond Wealth here:
www.streetwisenews.com/bwealth
Download the book to your favourite device, put all the other devices in another room, turn off the television and radio, make yourself a brew and read… read without distraction. Train your attention muscle and at the same time learn some of the most powerful lessons ever written.
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PS… Reading is one of the best ways to train your attention and your ability to focus because you cannot read without giving it your full attention. It is mindfulness in action.
Here’s that link again: