For many of us nowadays, it seems the general population often has a hard time paying attention for extended periods of time.
We have our little computers in our pockets that are constantly buzzing about the latest news. We’re receiving messages from our families and colleagues, possibly about plans for tomorrow or the upcoming weekend. It seems there is always something new to see. More content, more news. It’s slowly lowering our attention span.
With every new alert or notification, it leads us somewhere else. We lose track and click on that new alert. An article from the American Psychological Association states that the median attention span is around 40 seconds. The article features Dr. Gloria Mark, a psychologist and chancellor’s professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.
Mark states that when they began a study back in 2004, “. . . we found the average attention span on any screen to be around two and a half minutes. Throughout the years, it became shorter. So, around 2012, we found it to be 75 seconds.”
Attention span refers to the amount of time a person can concentrate on a task before becoming distracted.
An article by Jamie Ducharme from Time.com was published in 2023. Ducharme writes, “Focus waxes and wanes naturally depending on a range of factors, from how much sleep someone got the night before to how interested they are in the task at hand.”
Admittedly, it can be hard sometimes to pay attention throughout the day. Students often have class early in the morning. If they stayed up the night before studying for a test or catching up on homework, they are losing sleep to be prepared for the next day, which can negatively affect their attention span.
Jones College Psychology professor Kathryn Davis has a different take on shortening attention spans.
“. . . it’s not that our attention span has declined, it’s that it has shifted; because students can still very much be entertained by six hours of Netflix or sitting in front of a game,” said Davis.
Social media and short-form-content can each affect the attention span of young adults. With the rapid and fragmented content of social media platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, heavy usage can have a negative impact on cognitive control and attention spans altogether.
Regarding the rise of short-form content and the rise of artificial intelligence related to students’ attention spans, Davis said, “It can be hard to shift our focus from using that technology to thinking critically now. . . our critical thinking has declined.”
With the rise of new technology, our prefrontal cortexes are in danger, but they don’t have to be. While it can sometimes feel like A.I. is taking over some forms of society, it is up to us not to let it take over our minds.’
by James Shelton
