Much has already been written about our attention being stolen from us by tech companies and advertising and they have already done a great job. And there is some conjecture that our attention spans are becoming smaller with the rise of social media – Instagram, TikTok etc.

I’d like to talk about attention and achieving things for yourself. Your day, your life. My day, my life.

Stolen Attention

Over the years I’ve been trying with some difficulty to extricate myself from scrolling feed based social media – Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, etcetera. They are often a waste of productive time, giving you stuff to read but not actually being worthwhile. I suspect many (of you too!) have noticed this too. I keep finding I just read comments and pointless discussion for hours.

It’s gotten worse with the social media platforms trying to inject random content into our feeds like Instagram’s suggested Reels, Twitter’s “For You” tab, Facebook’s whole feed seemingly. Even Reddit has started putting personalised content into the main feed. On one hand, it’s good to see other posts to avoid the filter bubble and surface posts you wouldn’t see anyway; but on the others hand, I didn’t ask for it, and it just keeps you on the site longer, rather than allowing you to check and leave when done. This sort of thing is why they

My solution has been to try to manage my subscriptions to keep my feeds relevant, and if possible, use screen time management apps to limit the lost time. I found the first few comments are mildly insightful, but the rest is just a waste of time, and by then the timer is up anyway.

Practical Takeaways

If you find yourself losing several minutes to social media instead of getting up or being productive, I recommend the following:

• Use a screen time management app. Screen time features are built into modern Android and iOS, and I couple it with AppBlock on Android to limit usage usage on an hourly basis rather than daily.
• Be mindful of what you consume. If possible, try to update the recommendations to show less of the stuff you don’t want. Of course, this doesn’t always work!
• Out of sight, out of mind. Remove the distracting apps from your phone, or browser shortcuts. I found I’m more likely to go to twitter if I see the shortcut in Firefox, so I turned off the shortcut, then I just didn’t think about it.
• Find or make a reason to do something else that’s more engaging or enjoyable. This could be reading a novel on the bus, waking up early to go on a hike, meeting friends, or any other fulfilling activity that you truly enjoy more than scrolling social media.

Attention Spans

There seems to be a meme (in the true sense of the word) that our attention spans have been decreasing of late due to TikTok clips and and flashy videos. This idea seems to have some merit, (otherwise we wouldn’t believe it), though now I’m starting to have doubts about it.

The BBC writes that our attention spans haven’t legitimately been decreasing, but really, we have more possible stimuli to give our thoughts to and more things that we “have to” think about. So now we are dual screening: watching Netflix while browsing Facebook, listening to podcasts while working, reading Twitter while waiting. This is not good for our productivity of course, but not inherently evidence that we are shortening our attention spans.

Some Redditors in this thread also have noticed that they indeed have no issues concentrating on enjoyable activities for long periods but seem to flick to other things when an activity becomes boring to them.

My personal anecdote: I thought there was something wrong with me, that I couldn’t concentrate on a couple of novels earlier this year. I tried to read at least two novels and kept finding that I couldn’t focus, and YouTube or Netflix was more interesting. Then quite recently I discovered a novel which is so engrossing that I want to keep reading it, well after I should be turning off the light and going to sleep. So, it’s not that I can’t focus for longer than 20 minutes, but that those books weren’t interesting enough to compared with other available media.

Assuming you don’t legitimately have ADHD or a similar condition, maybe the reason you find it difficult to concentrate on things for a while is that it’s just not interesting enough for you. Or you are hungry or tired so can’t find anything in the activity worth focusing on.

Practical Takeaways

• Try to subscribe to less media like podcasts and feeds of news/updates/posts so that it’s easier to concentrate on what you want to instead of other media that might come your way.  We also need some time away from consuming information to let our minds process life. - How Exposure to Silence Benefits the Brain – Science of Us (thecut.com)
• Find something to concentrate on that you actually enjoy enough by itself.
• Failing that, find a time and a place where you can concentrate easily on less interesting things, either because there’s less distractions, or just nothing else to do.
• Eat or drink something if you feel like you can’t focus due to hunger or thirst, or just sleep if you are actually tired.
• Go for a walk if you can, or if the weather isn’t conducive to it, do some mindfulness activity like the laundry for a few minutes to clear you mind. – From How to focus with a short attention span | CNN

Further Reading/Minor Thoughts. Maybe a conclusion too!

Attention and related time usage is something I’ve wrestled with over the years; sometimes as entertainment, a coping mechanism, or a useful way of gaining knowledge that has a tendency to become out of control.

I’ve recently tried to subscribe to less podcasts as discussed earlier and have found it calming. I find it nice to just go for a walk and listen to the birds and look at the trees and pay attention to your neighbourhood. At least say, half the walks I go on.

The AppBlock trick is good to remind me that I’ve spent several minutes on a site, consuming content and likely not really gaining anything. Having said that, just this morning while waking up, I set a timer for 2.5 minutes of laying in bed, and it went so fast (just staring at the seconds counting down) that the overtime song started playing and I listened to that for 1 minute in while the timer was negative! I suspect that the transition periods from sleep or wake affect our perception of time.

It’s good to keep in mind when an activity or piece of content is no longer providing value and in particular even detracting from your life. Here I mean, mostly distracting or low value media consumption, rather physical activities or consumption. Physical activity or consumption could certainly be detrimental to one’s particular needs but is out of scope of this blog post. What I’m really talking about is newsletters or subreddits or podcasts you don’t need anymore but are taking up your time and attention beyond your control.

I’ll finish here and leave you with an unsorted list of further reading and references. Hope it’s inspiring!

List of Resources

• Wonderful long read on social media creating an “Ennui Engine”
• The BBC article, Busting the Attention Span Myth
• Are attention spans really collapsing? Data shows UK public is worried, but also see technology benefits
• How to focus with a short attention span | CNN – How to focus on things when you need to.
• How Exposure to Silence Benefits the Brain – Science of Us (thecut.com)
• What Is Listening to Podcasts All Day Doing to My Brain? (thecut.com) – Maybe listening to so many podcasts isn’t a great idea.

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