Attention jugglers

Most of us are now used to being connected, or rather hyper-connected. At the bus stop, 9 out of 10 people look at their mobile phones, in the evening we find ourselves taking a look at Facebook rather than posting something. interesting on Instagram. And in the morning we first check for new messages on WhatsApp or email. When we are unlucky and suffer from insomnia, the temptation to spend the night with a tablet in hand is sometimes irresistible.

The rapid evolution of technology has led us to be constantly focused, or perhaps distracted, on many things in no time. The result is a much reduced attention span compared to the past.
The current lifestyle makes us jugglers who bounce attention from one activity to another. If I interrupt a few seconds while doing a task to read a message, did I just waste those few seconds? I actually lost something more, because you have to consider the time it takes to re-focus. At the University of Pennsylvania, a group of students was subjected to a test: some did not have their phones, others had their phones on and occasionally received messages. Compared to the former, the students with the telephone have achieved results that are about 20% lower.

In a recently published book, entitled Stolen Focus: why you can't pay attention , the author Johann Hari, worried about stolen attention, recounts his choice to lead an experience almost comparable to a trip to the past: three months without Internet connections, in a small town on the east coast of the United States. After days accompanied by a feeling of emptiness, he has rediscovered the ability to focus on a single activity for an extended time, without effort. It was a great relief to discover that in the right circumstances our brain can regain all its strength.

We know that we cannot eliminate the technology that surrounds us and that technology has allowed great positive changes, but these experiences suggest the importance of not being dominated by hyper-connection. Certainly on a personal level we can make choices to defend our attention, but collective choices can also help. For example, some countries, such as France, have recognized the "right to disconnect", which guarantees compliance with working hours in order to be contacted by employers. It would be a great result if social networks also made choices oriented towards models aimed at preserving mental well-being.

What can push us to look up from the screen? Maybe we need to go back to being a little child and rediscover that putting our hands in the dough and experiencing concreteness will be what will lead us to choose to turn off the mobile phone and not be steal attention.

Valentina Turinetto
NP March 2022