Is Concentration a Thing of the Past?
Social Media's Impact on Students' Learning Abilities
It's a common occurrence for teenage students: They open up their laptops, take out their notes, and get ready to work on homework. But wait… The soft glow of an Instagram notification on their phone (which, of course, is sitting right next to them) catches their attention. They can't help but check who liked their photo, which turns into an hour of them scrolling through their feed and switching between social media platforms.
According to Addiction Center, social media is defined as a behavior addiction. Of course, addictions can come in a variety of different severities, but for some, this addiction can cause mood modifications, withdrawal symptoms, and even lead some to thoughts of self-harm. Addiction Center explains how social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are designed to alter the way users' brains work in the same way that gambling does. Gambling and internet addictions lead to increased symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as a lack of impulse control. The constant stream of retweets, likes, and shares from these sites are shown to trigger the same kind of chemical reaction in the brain's reward area as with drugs like Cocaine.
In a BBC news article titled "Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users," Aza Raskin, a leading technology engineer who designed infinite scroll, explained furthers this addiction explanation by saying:
“It’s as if they’re taking behavioral cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that’s the thing that keeps you like coming back and back and back. Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally like literally a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting” — Aza Raskin
This addiction also negatively impacts our ability to stay focused and concentrate on the tasks at hand. According to a study done by Microsoft Canada, found that as of 2013, people generally lose concentration after 8 seconds. This is a drastic decline from 2000, when the average attention span was 12 seconds. In addition to this, the average attention span of a goldfish averages 9 seconds, meaning goldfish have better concentration than humans do. The short video linked below goes more into depth on this study.
This idea of a shortened attention span is evident in social behavior. Have you ever tuned out someone because their story wasn't very interesting? Or have you gone on your phone while watching TV because the scene was kinda boring? The tweet below is a good example of this phenomenon.
With close to 16,000 likes, this tweet shows that our attention span isn't just struggling with school work, which some argue is boring. Even when talking about music, which many people love to listen to, a 20 song album is too long for people to enjoy without becoming bored and distracted.
Since the beginning of the 2020 quarantine, this dependency on social media and our phones has worsened. A report on social media usage during the COVID-19 pandemic noted that during the first two weeks of March 2020, there was a 76% increase in daily accumulated likes on influencers' #ad posts. They also reported a 27% increase in TikTok engagement.
A New York Times article also noted similar trends. They found a significant increase in internet usage from January to March. When looking at desktop web traffic only, Facebook had a 27% increase, and YouTube had a 15.3% increase.
This addiction, and the decreased attention span that comes with it, are seriously harming students' learning capabilities. According to a Twitter poll, asking "How often does social media distract you while trying to focus on homework, studying, and other important tasks?" 93.8% of respondents said they get distracted by social media multiple times a day.
This shortened attention span isn't just making it more difficult for students to complete homework; it is also causing social media to be a significant distraction while in class.
I spoke with Alexa Alyson, a high school teacher in the District of Lake County. We spoke about how often cell phones are a distraction in her class, what she does to lessen the issue, how social media addiction has affected her personally, and much more. You can check out that conversation below.
This impact on students' ability to learn and pay attention is proving to be an issue, and I don't see it getting much better anytime soon.
So what can you do to try to combat this? For starters, become aware of how much screen time you have per day. If you have an iPhone, it can be as simple as checking your screen time under settings. After that, identify when you use your phone too much and what media sites you're using. Are you scrolling on Twitter in bed right after you wake up? Or are you wasting time on TikTok when you're supposed to be completing important tasks in the middle of the day? Maybe you spend too much time on Instagram right before faking sleep at night? Identifying where you're overusing your phone and what you are doing while on your phone is extremely helpful in reducing this addiction.
As mentioned in the audio slideshow above, sometimes you just need to separate yourself from your phone. Leave it in the other room while doing homework. Put it on your dresser across the room at night. Enable app limits to lock apps you're spending too much time on. Turn off unnecessary notifications. Try to limit as much of the temptation as possible. This is not easy to do, but it's a necessary step towards benefiting your concentration and learning abilities.
