Abstract: What’s in it for me? The tale of how we lost the ability to focus – and how we can get it back.
*self-referencing Post
We’ve all been there. You sit down, ready for work, and you get a text. As you're texting back, a news alert appears – so you shift over to read what’s happening. But as you’re halfway through reading the headline, you get another ping: someone’s liked the photo that you posted last night. And after checking who it was, you realize they’ve also posted new photos . . . is that a new partner?! As you start swiping through the images, a Slack notification chimes. Wait, what were you doing again? Oh, right: work.
Notes focus on the following :
how social media is actually designed to sap your focus;
what do 1950s animal experiments have to do with Instagram’s “like” button; and
why spending less time at work might actually boost your productivity.
Takeaways:
1. It’s not just you – everyone is struggling to focus.
-Unless you’re living off the grid, you’ve probably noticed that it’s getting increasingly difficult to focus. You’re busy all the time, yet you struggle to actually get anything done.
-By research it is observed that the more time we’ve spent in online spaces, the shorter our attention spans have become.
- The amount of information we receive daily is huge, one major source being online media in any form. And according to research, our brain hasn't caught up with processing so much information, thus the loss of focus.
2. Apps and online platforms are addictive by design, not by accident.
- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter – the fact that these apps and other online platforms suck so much of your time isn’t a design flaw. They’re supposed to be addictive. After all, there’s a reason Silicon Valley calls its customers “users.” And where did this design originate? That’s easy: the Persuasive Technologies Lab at Stanford University.
- One of the psychologists studied this in the lab was B. F. Skinner.
- Skinner inspired the creation of other buttons you might recognize: like buttons, share buttons, and comment buttons. Those little hearts and emojis and retweet buttons aren’t design quirks; they’re programming us to use social media in addictive ways by rewarding us for the time we spend on the platforms.
- Raskin invented the infinite scroll – the endlessly refreshing feed of content that now features on the interface of nearly every social media platform, giving the impression that there is a never-ending supply of content. If likes and shares encourage users to stay online longer, the infinite scroll encourages users to stay online in perpetuity.
- But he became troubled when he noticed how it was changing online habits – including his own. Noticing that he was spending longer and longer on social media, Raskin started to do the math. He estimates that the infinite scroll induces the average user to spend 50 percent more time on platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
- The business model of most of these platforms is predicated on time – or, as they call it, engagement. This refers to how much time a user spends interacting with a product. That’s the metric tech companies use to measure their success – not money, but minutes. But money does play a part, too. Because the longer you spend “engaging,” the more chances the companies have to sell advertisements. The more you engage, the more companies track your behavior and build a profile uniquely designed to target you with specific ads. We don’t pay for platforms like Facebook and Instagram with our money. But we do pay with another precious, finite commodity: our attention.
In Silicon Valley, time equals money. The money is theirs. And the time – the attention – is yours.
3. Algorithms privilege outrage over the community.
- Lately, it feels like online platforms have been much more intent on dividing than connecting. And it all has to do with algorithms.
- The content you see on this infinitely refreshing page isn’t ordered chronologically. It’s arranged by an algorithm that is programmed to feed us content that keeps us scrolling longer. It’s easier to disengage from calm, positive content. But if something strikes us as outrageous or controversial, we tend to keep looking. It’s part of a psychological phenomenon called negativity bias – that is, negative experiences impact us more than positive ones. So it’s in social media’s interest to literally provoke its users.
- The algorithm has no ethics. It doesn’t condone or condemn; it just codes. But the people watching it feel, believe, and judge.
- You may not engage with misinformation online. You might put down your phone or close your laptop when you feel outraged by what you see online. You may choose not to spend your attention on provocative content. But this still affects you.
- See, when online platforms privilege divisive, shocking content, they also corrode our power for collective attention – our ability, as a society, to focus on issues that affect us. - Would we be able to collectively train our focus on a similar issue today? We already know the answer to this question. Climate change poses a real and present danger to life on earth. But as a species, we can’t seem to absorb the science – or even agree on whether we should be listening to scientists in the first place.
- Social media can be a powerful force for good. But rather than harness this force, platforms like Facebook are intent on exploiting our attention – and, as a consequence, they’re sowing division and controversy.
- Recently, Facebook conducted an internal investigation called “Common Ground.” Its aim was to uncover whether the company’s algorithms really did promote controversy and misinformation to keep users engaged. According to the report, the findings were very clear: “Our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness.”
- Facebook hasn’t done very much about this disturbing finding, however. And neither have we. We’re too busy infinitely scrolling.
4. Ditch multitasking – recovering focus is about finding flow.
- More likely, you’re doing a range of things: listening to this blink, cooking dinner, scrolling through the news, or chatting with your roommate or partner.
- It’s easy – and not inaccurate – to blame our shrinking attention spans on our devices and the easy access they offer to an attention-sucking online world. But, like an artfully cropped Instagram snap, that’s not the whole picture.
- There’s a fundamental flaw in the way we frame “focus.”
- Our focus is a resource that allows us to produce, to earn, to tick items off our to-do lists. And that’s where multitasking comes in. The more we can simultaneously achieve, the better our focus is spent. So why not distribute our attention across several tasks at once?
- Well because, as it turns out, humans are really bad at multitasking. The word “multitask” was coined by computer scientists in the ’60s to describe the function of computers with multiple processors. It was never meant to be applied to humans. After all, we only have one processor: our brain.
- When we multitask, we’re not simultaneously performing several tasks at once. We’re switching between them at hyperspeed. And every switch incurs what’s called a “switch-cost” effect. When you switch between tasks – or when you’re interrupted mid-task – your brain needs to recalibrate, which decreases your mental performance.
- A study commissioned by Hewlett Packard compared a group who worked on a task uninterrupted with a group that was distracted during the course of their task. The study found that members of the distracted group temporarily dropped an average of ten IQ points while they were completing their task.
- There is an antidote to multitasking – a way of approaching tasks that cultivates deep focus. The psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi first identified this state, which he called “flow.” You find your flow, Csikszentmihalyi theorized, when you become so absorbed by a task that you lose all sense of your surroundings and are able to access a deep well of internal focus. If you’ve ever concentrated so hard on something – whether that’s rock-climbing, coding, painting, or simply doing a jigsaw puzzle – that you lose track of time, then you’ve been in a flow state. In flow, your focus becomes deeper and better, and you’re far less susceptible to distractions.
- First, the task you’re tackling needs to be intrinsically rewarding; when you’re in flow, it’s the process rather than the product that engages you. So, unless you’re passionate about data entry, you’re unlikely to find flow filling out spreadsheets.
- Second, the task should be challenging enough to demand your full attention – but not so difficult that you’re tempted to give up on it.
- Finally, monotasking is essential. To tap into that wellspring of focus, you need to direct all your mental energy toward a single task.
- High-performing individuals like athletes, musicians, and scientists often attribute their achievements to their ability to access flow states. But in a society that has decided multitasking is a virtue – and that values speed and output over deep focus – the average person is finding it harder and harder to achieve flow.
5. We can get our attention back.
- Shorter workdays and workweeks enable deep focus instead of performative multitasking, and they encourage workers to avoid workplace distractions – like sneaking a scroll through social media when the boss isn’t looking.
- there are solutions to this collective attention crisis. We can reclaim our attention . . . if only we can focus on the task at hand.
Bibliography
Johann Hari. (2022, June 06). Book Source. Personal. Stolen Focus.
Note
These are all personal notes and reviews for self referencing; The self interpretations are not meant for any profit or marketing.
Suggestion to readers
Please read the entire book. Suggested.
--------------------------------------Thank you, Gratitude, Love and Light-----------------------------------
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