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My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

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Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#11

Post by kiernanmcgowan »

One thing that I have done to help keep focus is to turn off as many notifications as possible and put my phone out of sight when I need to focus on something. The goal is to claim agency around where I put my energy. Conversely, if I'm bored and have a few minutes to kill I don't beat myself up about scrolling twitter.

You can control what takes your attention, but at the same time everything is _designed_ to take your attention. Ad blockers are an example of this sort of exercise - you can limit what tries to take your attention, but it requires action.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#13

Post by luxurytent »

Had a coworker who lived life the old way, distinct online and offline modes of operation. His phone was a classic flip phone. During the day, he'd be online working his software engineering job. Outside of that, he may stay on the computer some more, but if he stepped away from the office, there was no other device in his home to that'd allow him back online.

We discussed it a few times, and my belief is that small amount of friction, entering a particular room to go online, was enough to help him get more intentional about how he spends his days.

Needless to say, the man had a lot of interesting hobbies and was well read.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#14

Post by alexalx666 »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #8

I do wonder how much web design contributes to the apparent epidemic of attention difficulties. There is very often (even some in the article) visual noise in or around the text. Ads are designed to draw attention to themselves, and ignoring them wears on your cognitive resources. Sometimes the text is "enhanced" to fight back against the surrounding noise by adding images or color or highlighting portions of the tex…

What's scary is that having a clean distraction free layout becomes an exception on the web. Most articles "regular" ppl read can probably only be read via reader layout in safari

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#15

Post by jaqalopes »

So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap.

This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I got a phone safe (this kind of thing: https://shorturl.at/drzMT>, I refer to it as the "phone jail"), which I leave my phone in from bedtime every night to ~4pm the next day. And I leave the whole rig on my bedroom shelf while I go to work at the library/cafe/kitchen table.

There are obvious drawbacks to this that I don't think most people would accept (especially regarding being reachable or having a way to place emergency calls). But it's been invaluable for me to make the mental space I need to finish my manuscript. Plus you can still use the phone through the holes in the cover if you need to, it's just really annoying and not very portable.

In the long run, I'd like to become a fliphone guy like some other commenters here, but I genuinely do get a lot of value from having a smartphone. I just need to get away from it during working hours.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#16

Post by bombcar »

jaqalopes wrote: post #15

So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap. This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I got a phone safe (this kind of thing: https://shorturl.at/drzMT >, I refer to it as the "phone jail"), which I leave my phone in from bedtime every night to ~4pm the next day. And I leave the whole rig on my bedroom shelf while I go to work at the library/cafe/k…

Getting an actual honest-to-goodness landline isn't terribly expensive, and works as a phone for emergencies.

Most people wasting time on smartphones would put it down almost immediately if it had no internet access.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#17

Post by thenerdhead »

danr4 wrote: post #9

Related: Anyone using Blinkist? How is it?

The summaries are mediocre at best. If you are willing to have someone you don’t know summarize a book for you, then it’s good. There’s plenty of people posting book summaries online that are a bit more reputable. I personally think it’s filling the exact niche of people not spending more time being analog to find out for themselves by reading and redeveloping their attention.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#18

Post by TheFreim »

jaqalopes wrote: post #15

So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap. This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I got a phone safe (this kind of thing: https://shorturl.at/drzMT >, I refer to it as the "phone jail"), which I leave my phone in from bedtime every night to ~4pm the next day. And I leave the whole rig on my bedroom shelf while I go to work at the library/cafe/k…

> especially regarding being reachable or having a way to place emergency calls

I love being unreachable, it's one of the reasons I'll often turn my phone off during the work day or leave it at home. This means I won't have a phone to make emergency calls, but I'm not really bothered by that (it's how I lived over half my life).

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#19

Post by TheFreim »

bombcar wrote: post #16
jaqalopes wrote: post #15

So glad to see I'm not the only one taking drastic action after falling into the phone/attention trap. This won't work for everyone, but maybe 6 months ago I got a phone safe (this kind of thing: https://shorturl.at/drzMT >, I refer to it as the "phone jail"), which I leave my phone in from bedtime every night to ~4pm the next day. And I leave the whole rig on my bedroom shelf while I go to work at the library/cafe/k…

Getting an actual honest-to-goodness landline isn't terribly expensive, and works as a phone for emergencies. Most people wasting time on smartphones would put it down almost immediately if it had no internet access.

I have a landline in my home, it's great. Can't get texts so people have to call, they can leave a message if it's urgent. I can leave my phone off as long as I want and still be contacted when I'm at home.

Re: My awakening moment about how smartphones fragment our attention span

#20

Post by bombcar »

TheFreim wrote: post #19
bombcar wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting an actual honest-to-goodness landline isn't terribly expensive, and works as a phone for emergencies. Most people wasting time on smartphones would put it down almost immediately if it had no internet access.

I have a landline in my home, it's great. Can't get texts so people have to call, they can leave a message if it's urgent. I can leave my phone off as long as I want and still be contacted when I'm at home.

Yeah, and if you want to go the "hacker route" you can terminate the landline in a cobbled-together Asterix PBX for even more fun.

You could use a VOIP number but then it would go down when the Internet goes down.

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