Olivia Zimmerman ’29
Honestly, how long can you go without picking up your phone? Can you read through this article without your mind craving something else — something more engaging?
I think it would be simply unreasonable for us to deny that there is a real problem. Our attention spans are diminishing, and they are doing so at a concerningly rapid rate. The fact that people cannot sit through a meal or watch a movie without pulling out their phone is discomforting. Because the thing is this never used to be a problem. Something has happened over the past decade to bring us to this state.
You could probably guess what I am about to say: social media. I mean, it makes sense. These short-form videos wither away our attention span until we’ve become mindless zombies swiping through meaningless minute-long videos. But it is depressing what we’ve become. Why is it that we’d rather let our brains become muddled with nonsensical content instead of experiencing the world as it should be? I suppose it’s not entirely our own fault or conscious choice. Social media is a real addiction, unfortunately. Now, I am not here to tell you to get off social media because your attention span is suffering. I mean, it is suffering, but I get it — once you’re on those apps, can you really ever get off? It’s not as easy as just putting down the phone, and no matter how bad we know it is for us, we continue to use it. Our world is hard-wired in such a way that distractions are everywhere, begging for our attention and whipping us into a mental chaos. We’ve evolved to compartmentalize that chaos — to take in the whirlwind of information and at least try to process it before moving onto the next thing. That is the very issue, unfortunately. Because we are bombarded with easy access to so many different forms of information and entertainment, we have given up on fully processing what we see. That’s how so many of these short-form video apps work. When you see videos on TikTok or Instagram, chances are you can’t remember what you watched just a minute ago because your mind isn’t given a moment to fully process what you’ve seen. There’s never a chance to think about anything anymore; instead, we’re looped into a bustling society that is telling us to keep ourselves busy and entertained. After all, why face the anxieties or stress overwhelming you when you can just let it rot in the back of your mind while your attention is preoccupied with something else?
Social media and technology aren’t the only cause of our loss of attention spans. It has to do with the culture and environment we are surrounded by, too. It seems to have become normalized to integrate phones into many social situations, so it makes sense to follow along with what other people are doing. The actions of the people around us greatly influence how we proceed, whether or not we realize it. Similarly, our minds have been trained to always be consuming some sort of information, for when we aren’t doing this, we are being unproductive or lazy. At least that is what the social culture says.
Before I get ahead of myself, I cannot claim that everyone is suffering a loss of attention span, nor can I claim that social media and culture shifts are the only contributors to this strange epidemic. There are plenty of people out there who show no indication of a shortened attention span, and honestly, how can we attempt to pinpoint the cause of this lack of attention? There are so many other factors that go into these things, and I would be mistaken to boil it down to one phenomenon in particular. However, I am concerned for how the next generation and those after will be impacted. I do think our way of life is shifting, and I wonder how the younger generation will be shaped by this. Teachers seem to already be noticing differences in the behavior of young kids — behavior that can be confidently linked to a lack of attention. Of course, kids are naturally not the most focused, but I am talking about more than childish rambunctiousness. I am talking about a shift in the very nature and wiring of their minds — one that tries to accommodate for an excessive influx of information and entertainment. Perhaps it is time we pay attention to the very thing many of us are lacking.
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