Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Our attention span is being robbed

unstructed.tech

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 161 posts

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#121

Post by __t__ »

ux-app wrote: post #98
JackFr wrote: post #79

I’m sympathetic to this argument to some extent… And yet… Just choose to read a book. Drop Facebook. Stop reading Twitter and scrolling through TikTok. I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. Or don’t. Totally up to you. But the idea that something is being done to you is both seductive and lazy. Take responsibility, act intentionally and don’t worry about it.

> I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. It's really not though. These apps are addictive! There's a real effort required to drop them and many(most?) people don't have what it takes to kick the habit. I installed TikTok a few months ago to see what all the fuss was about. That shit is ADDICTIVE man. Even to me, a middle aged grump, who doesn't use any social media. I had to uninstall the app a month later as…

Well said. I'd add that aside from being hard to drop people are not generally aware in the first place of the problems that come with overusing these apps.

How can you fight a problem that you don't think of as a problem

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#122

Post by omegacharlie »

Anyone else feel pessimistic about the future of internet communities given the decline of places like IRC and bulletin boards where one could make real social connections with special interests compared to the rise of 'walled garden' social media with synthetic content to please some techbro algorithm and most users being passive observers?

Do not know the answer but I do not like where this bodes for the future of internet communities.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#123

Post by mordae »

bhaney wrote: post #67

Honestly, it's articles like this that lead me to be so stingy with my attention. I wanted to close the tab a third of the way into the article not because I'm incapable of paying attention, but because the article was wasting my time by shoving the same simple point into my face over and over again with no evidence or interesting implications. I will pay attention to articles with a reasonable density of information…

My favorite take from 2015: http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2015/10/why-its-ok-to-b... To the point and consistent.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#124

Post by mordae »

judah wrote: post #35

Thinking out loud here...is it possible to use the same patterns for good? Like, infinite scroll, bite-sized chunk UI, etc. that trick our minds into reading a full book?

Wouldn't that be contrary to the goal? If the goal is to facilitate deep thought, you cannot slice it up into little chunks. If you do, you still guide the mind instead of letting it find it's own path. The Aha! moments are the best way to remember things, for one. And slicing up a book would be an unduly burden to the writer.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#125

Post by mordae »

dredmorbius wrote: post #88
judah wrote: post #35

Thinking out loud here...is it possible to use the same patterns for good? Like, infinite scroll, bite-sized chunk UI, etc. that trick our minds into reading a full book?

I'd suggest ... not, for the most part. Though there's the option of planting little long-focus concentration seeds by dropping references to both longer-form high-quality works and the mindset that it takes to absorb them within more accessible materials. Books have pretty much always had an accessibility problem --- they're hard to publicise and attract readers to, and there's a considerable infrastructure that's b…

I second this.

What has worked for me in the past to get away from reading morsel-sized content and back into reading long prose was a lighthearted, but captivating book. I have read something from Terry Pratchett and by the end of the book, I was itching to finally give a read to other works in my library that were just collecting dust.

In some of his works the gags flow so well, you just can't stop turning pages. You "win the jackpot" pretty often.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#126

Post by eastbound »

barrell wrote: post #114
ux-app wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. It's really not though. These apps are addictive! There's a real effort required to drop them and many(most?) people don't have what it takes to kick the habit. I installed TikTok a few months ago to see what all the fuss was about. That shit is ADDICTIVE man. Even to me, a middle aged grump, who doesn't use any social media. I had to uninstall the app a month later as…

While I understand your point, reading a good book can also be addictive. Far more than any technology I use. I have to enforce reading bans on myself when I have a big deadline because I will sacrifice work, sleep, and gym to get to the end of a good book. To anyone reading this wanting to switch their habits, find some “booktubers” who have recommendations you like, follow them, and try to train your phones algorit…

I often blame the book author for withholding information. For the same reason, if a series finishes each episode with a cliffhanger which doesn’t get resolved in the first minutes of the next episode, I consider it bad writing. I’ve seen series with 20 unanswered cliffhangers after 20 episodes, and I never want to experience this again.

A book which withholds information for the purpose of suspense, without it being natural for the story, is just a bad book.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#127

Post by dragonsky67 »

ge96 wrote: post #117
JackFr wrote: post #79

I’m sympathetic to this argument to some extent… And yet… Just choose to read a book. Drop Facebook. Stop reading Twitter and scrolling through TikTok. I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. Or don’t. Totally up to you. But the idea that something is being done to you is both seductive and lazy. Take responsibility, act intentionally and don’t worry about it.

On weekends I make a point not to open any social media and immediately go heads down into my project. I only look at fun web stuff after I'm mentally spent.

On weekends I kick back and do whatever I feel like. Time to recover, not to drain the bucket even more.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#128

Post by endorphine »

ux-app wrote: post #98
JackFr wrote: post #79

I’m sympathetic to this argument to some extent… And yet… Just choose to read a book. Drop Facebook. Stop reading Twitter and scrolling through TikTok. I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. Or don’t. Totally up to you. But the idea that something is being done to you is both seductive and lazy. Take responsibility, act intentionally and don’t worry about it.

> I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. It's really not though. These apps are addictive! There's a real effort required to drop them and many(most?) people don't have what it takes to kick the habit. I installed TikTok a few months ago to see what all the fuss was about. That shit is ADDICTIVE man. Even to me, a middle aged grump, who doesn't use any social media. I had to uninstall the app a month later as…

To be fair, they said "simple", not "easy".

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#129

Post by NovaVeles »

JackFr wrote: post #79

I’m sympathetic to this argument to some extent… And yet… Just choose to read a book. Drop Facebook. Stop reading Twitter and scrolling through TikTok. I’ve come to believe it’s really that simple. Or don’t. Totally up to you. But the idea that something is being done to you is both seductive and lazy. Take responsibility, act intentionally and don’t worry about it.

Similar thinking to "Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one." - Marcus Aurelius

For anyone that has beaten addiction, it is this kind of thinking one eventually takes on. For all the help that you can make to make the leap easier - eventually you have to take that mental leap for change. At no point is it easy, especially with chemical addiction, but it is the step than needs to happen.

Re: Our attention span is being robbed

#130

Post by unrealp »

tdeck wrote: post #84
epolanski wrote: post #4

We know this already, but I wonder what the remedies are. My SO can barely watch a movie or tv show before she gets back to infinite scrolling socials, it's a disaster. 5 minutes is the most she can do. Going out with me or friends is the same, few minutes and she's back checking emails and socials. I decided to lead by example and delete all socials, even reddit or linkedin, but it's impossible.

I've tried to build my attention span back up. I measure this by how long I can read a book without the reflexive urge to look away or switch to something on my phone. What I find helpful: 1. Try not to multitask. Do not look at your phone while watching a show. Do not listen to a podcast while working. I tend to use podcasts as a way to get myself to do something else I don't enjoy, but I'm either distracted from wo…

4. Use the pomodoro method while working. >> helps me a lot. i keep 15 minute slots where i get phone offline and work. then at the end of 15 minutes do phone stuff for 10 minutes. you can get a lot done with pomodoro through the day.
Post reply on HN