SOCIETY AND WELLBEING
Resist the Attention Economy: First-Hand Tips to Decrease Attention Deficit
A few ways you can enhance your ability to focus and concentrate in the digital age
- How many times have you started a literary classic you genuinely wanted to read but lost track and left it back to its dusty shelf before completing it?
- How many times have you started a new project but ditched it for a new, more exciting one the moment things got harder?
- How many times have you started learning a new language but abandoned it once you have reached a higher level and the grammar started getting too complex?
I can personally answer all of these questions with “many times”.
Cultivating the art of focus and concentration have never been an easy task in the history of humanity.
It has always been a concern of philosophy and other sciences for thousands of years.
Nowadays, however, we are dealing with a new kind of challenge to our attentiveness, the internet.
OK, there is nothing new about the internet, it has been there since decades.
I mean internet in the broader sense and the platform economy in the narrower.
Platform economy is a term used to refer to business conducted by technology platforms initially used with Amazon, Airbnb etc. in mind.
But it also includes social media platforms, video streaming platforms, publishing platforms like Medium itself.
Anything and everything that allows a digital transactional model.
In essence they are great for creating scalable businesses, they democratise the fields they expertise in — meaning they make it accessible to many people at lower costs and they provide us with a new way of communicating and connecting with fellow humans globally.
The problem is, they thrive on our short attention.
They want more and more and more of it and all the time.
And that is called the attention economy.
Some of these platforms turn out to be big tech giants. To keep up with the growth of their business, they continuously come up with new ways to compete for our attention believing that it is a scarce commodity.
Their business model is based on the allegiance of our mind.
That’s why the notifications.
Much has been written and said on the role of notifications as instant gratification, how they release certain hormones and change the way our brains work.
Scientific research on this topic is growing every day but there is also still so much we don’t know.
I am not going to share facts and numbers because that’s not my style. I am tired of the ocean of data being used in a relativist fashion for proving whatever your point is.
We all experience it first-hand, how the existence of our digital devices and our digital connectedness at times clash with high levels of concentration some of the offline activities require.
Especially if these activities are not life crucial, like for example, reading a timeless piece of Jungian psychoanalysis.
After all, I can just watch a YouTube video that explains it to me in the most simplified way.
But let’s be honest. This way we are not hacking life.
We are cheating ourselves.
Every time we trade reading a primary, proven to be a valuable, classic source for ourselves and the even more daunting task of making sense of it for watching a video that explains to you using stock animation, we dilute our capacity to focus.
Why all the fuss about focus?
Best things in life require focus.
I don’t mean all our earthly desires like professional success, wealth and acknowledgment.
These things too benefit from focus but they can not possibly be as gratifying as other much more profoundly fulfilling things.
I mean, the joy we receive from:
- learning,
- understanding the world around us, the nature, our societies and ourselves,
- losing and finding ourselves in the most intriguing questions of philosophy,
- being captured in the magic of words — prose or verse,
- unravelling complicated questions with our ability to make causal inferences that we have developed by practising trigonometry and analytic geometry,
- spending uninterrupted, deeply connecting moments with the people we love,
the joy we receive from starting and finishing off a work ( a creative project, an academic thesis, mastering a new instrument, training our body).
Sharpening your focus is easier said than done but it is definitely possible.
Here are a few methods that worked for me.
1- Reading
And I don’t mean blog or wikipedia reading.
I’m very grateful that you are here and think my two cents are worth your time and I hope that I can reciprocate by saying something meaningful.
As helpful as online reading can be for us to feel more connected, to hear from people who are going through the same things, it is like the digital equivalent of reading columns in a magazine.
Sometimes you get something good out of it, sometimes it’s entertaining but it won’t train your mind the way a good old classic can.
Sure, read online blogs too.
But know that they can not replace those unnervingly thick pages inked with sadistically elevated language — that only its author can truly interpret.
Why would you need to go to the library and pick up a copy of the Second Sex?
It feels like nowadays you can receive information in many forms. You can pay a subscription to an app that reads its summary to you and even read the critique of it on Wikipedia and form an opinion.
Don’t do that.
I am not saying you should go and start with the thickest book with the most intricate ideas.
Know yourself and what is realistic for you. Give yourself more credit and go for something a little harder than a self-help book.
Don’t take hours to search and go through different books. Abundance of options makes it really tricky to make a decision and be happy with it these days. Just pick one.
If you don’t want to decide, read Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa P. Estés — doesn’t matter what gender you identify with, you will find value in it. It’s very terminological and not an easy read, but if you are decisive you will grow to appreciate it after some pages.
Sit through it until you finish.
It doesn't have to be at one go. Set a goal of reading a chapter every day for example but stick to it. Don’t go to bed before you have finished that chapter. If you fail, try again. It’s not the end of the world.
2- Physical Exercise
I can’t describe enough the immense difference physical exercise has made for me in such a short time to train my focus.
It serves as a constant in your life because it gives you a certain rhythm.
It brings you back to your body and increases your awareness.
It pulls you back from the thoughts, worries and anxieties because physical tasks require you to be present.
The good thing is, it can be in whatever form you like — going to gym, practising a school of Yoga, Karate, Aikido, Salsa, swimming, playing a team sport, just walking, whatever.
3- Doing Nothing
Here is the hardest of all.
Yes. Doing Nothing. I mean really nothing. Like for example for 15 minutes. Can you? Give it a Try!
4- Digital-Free Time
Last weekend I promised myself that I wouldn’t use my laptop over the weekend. No emails, no Netflix, no Medium. I have put it in my desk drawer and really didn’t touch it the whole weekend.
I have to admit there were a lot of boring gaps in between where I was tempted to pick it up, thinking I could watch an educating Ted Talk. But I didn’t.
Then ideas about all the things I could do started coming:
- We have spent hours walking to a bigger park that is a bit further with our dog.
- I have re-started a book I have left on its shelf for too long.
- I journaled with pen and paper.
- I drew a few illustrations and noted down ideas for writing.
- Did all the homework for an advanced language course I am taking.
- We made frittatas on Sunday morning with seasonal vegetables which took much longer than the usual butter, cheese, and tomato toast.
All of this while spending quality time with my partner and dog.
I kept my smartphone with me but used it very limitedly.
5- Starting and Finishing a Project
This is like your own testimony to yourself. Starting something and completing it.
It’s a great way of training your resoluteness.
It doesn’t have to be a big one.
It could be something like finishing an article you have started writing, baking a cake, knitting a scarf for yourself, completing a hike or doing nothing for 15 minutes everyday for 1 week.
There are plenty of things you can find. Do something that your heart already wants and have the discipline to complete it.
Let me know if you end up trying some of these and if they help you as they have helped me.
Hope you find the right way for you.
If you are struggling with digital addiction and need more motivation to deal with it, check out the articles below as well. If you are good, get out of here.
