Our Short Attention Spans
By Malin Phelan
I have a short attention span. So does my entire generation. This is, of course, the result of being fully immersed in a world of technology. For those of us who have grown up around technology, screens are central to our lives. They are arguably the most important things to us. Though the internet and all its facets enrich our lives in so many ways, it has also brought numerous drawbacks (including on our mental health, our ability to form relationships with other people, and our creativity). In this article, however, I will discuss the practical impacts of technology on the attention spans of today’s younger generations.
The iPhone first debuted on June 29, 2007. I was just two years old at the time. I did not actually own an iPhone until I was in sixth grade, in 2016. Before that point, I owned a flip phone and an iPad. Owning an iPhone permanently altered my relationship with technology. As opposed to my iPad, which was simply not as convenient to pull out, and my flip phone, which I could only text and call on, my iPhone was the easiest form of entertainment that had ever been available to me. Instead of technology being a part of my life, it became central to my life. Along with the rest of Gen-Z, my most formative years have been dictated nearly entirely by technology and the spread of information that has been brought with it. As I’ve become acutely aware of this over the past couple of years due to the increasing conversation surrounding how this has affected our attention span, I believe that two key elements have contributed to this. Though these are not novel concepts, I believe that it is particularly important to consider the intersection of the two in regard to the current state of our young people.
1. The Pandemic
I was a freshman in high school when the novel coronavirus uprooted every single individual’s life. Technology, had, of course, already been a significant presence worldwide. However, as schools shut down and pivoted to Zoom and Google Classroom, the internet became more important than ever. It was no longer just an aide to our learning, but rather the primary mode of communication. This was a monumental shift in how technology was utilized in schools.
Now, although we have returned to in-person learning at school, we pull out our laptops instead of our notebooks. Classrooms are filled with the sounds of typing, not with the scratching of a pencil or pen. Though it is certainly convenient, this is a drastic change from how we learned even just five years ago. There is no separating technology from classrooms. It is integral to teachers’ syllabi, to how we communicate with classmates, and simply for convenience–it is, clearly, far more efficient to type up essays for revision rather than handwriting. There is no disputing that. However, the prevalence of technology in classrooms has permanently altered how students learn, and our dependence on it inside of school only exacerbates our dependence on it outside of school.
2. Short-Form Videos
TikTok is the fastest-growing app in the world. Originally called Musical.ly until it was bought by ByteDance in 2017, the (typically) fifteen-second videos have given way to an entire industry of influencers, supported by throngs of teenagers (and adults). As TikTok rapidly gained popularity in 2017 and 2018, other social media apps began adopting their formula. Instagram created Reels and Snapchat created Spotlight. The easily consumable format of these videos leads viewers to each watch potentially hundreds a day. It has developed into a full-blown market all on its own with influencers who make these videos becoming wildly popular.
In turn, the form of TikTok has changed how we view content and media. Sitting through a twenty-minute video now is difficult for many people. Watching an entire movie? That’s too much for some. While this is obviously not the case for the majority, there has been a clear shift as to how people are willing to consume their content–and TikTok and its successors have made that unavoidable.
3. The Intersection
During the time in which we were under lockdown, TikTok became a lifeline for teenagers across the world. Filled with activities, workouts, recipes, and dance videos, using TikTok was arguably one of the most iconic outcomes of the spring/summer of 2020 period. We came to depend on TikTok and other social media platforms as a way to connect with each other, to view the world beyond our backyards, and simply to see other human beings besides those in our own households.
That dependence, however, did not end even as the pandemic’s peak began to decline and vaccines helped us return to some normalcy. Our attention spans, already used to the fast-paced environment that the world is today, have become trained to absorb short-form content rather than long-form content. Even fifteen-minute Youtube videos, once a staple of this generation, are out of style. In its place are short videos that can be watched once and disregarded, which is apt for the way in which our world has developed in the past decade.
So what does this all mean for us? Not just for the teenagers of the world, but for the children and the adults. First and foremost, we must make a conscious effort to consume long-form media in addition to short-form media. We cannot allow TV shows and movies to lose any more traction. Though this seems otherworldly and nearly dystopian–a world where we must convince people to watch TV and movies–it is ultimately the place that we are in. Training our brains to be able to focus for longer periods of time is essential. We must also make an effort to avoid this complete dependence on technology in schools. Though there are obviously benefits to utilizing technology in classrooms, it cannot dictate entire classroom environments.
None of this is to say that you must delete TikTok, or refuse to take notes on a laptop in the classroom–rather, consider implementing some of these longer-form media (if you don’t already), and take an honest look into how your attention span has suffered as a result of our technology dependence. Certainly, eliminating technology should not happen. I am, of course, writing this from a laptop. But considering the motivations behind our actions via our screens is incredibly important. Using them in ways that better ourselves, along with building in screen-free time, is vital. Lengthening our attention spans by watching long-form media is one way to start. Even better than watching long-form media, of course, are those screen-free activities: reading, writing, cooking, listening to and making music, exercising, being outside, and being with family and friends. For my fellow Gen-Z cohort: this doesn’t have to be our world. There is far more beyond the rectangular screens that we see so much of.
