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

Have attention spans been declining?

slimemoldtimemold.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 495 posts

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#251

Post by ImaCake »

devmor wrote: post #234

This is entirely anecdotal, and as I have ADHD this may not be the norm; but I have noticed throughout my life so far that my attention span is a product of what I pay attention to. If I am primarily consuming content to enrich myself or critically analyze something, my attention span tends to be longer for a period of time. Conversely, if I am consuming content to socialize or out of boredom, my attention span short…

Yeah I, subjectively, have experienced the same. But with the same caveat about having ADHD. What I find more substantial is my stress level correlates with what media I consume. Books, long form writing, or even just any text medium (as opposed to video) tend to be more relaxing and allow me to focus better.

I wonder if stress is the causal mechanism for focus here? Maybe not entirely but a proportion of it.

I think speculation is allowed here since the author was unable to draw substantial conclusions either. But did distill a lot of useful information together.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#252

Post by slily »

cwkoss wrote: post #210
gardenhedge wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there's no way anyone just watches a 30s recipe clip one time and then goes and replicates the dish.

I watch them once to decide if I want to make it. Once immediately before starting. Then once-or-twice with a lot of pausing and seeking while cooking.

Doesn't sound very different from Grandma's recipe cards in terms of information density, potentially harder to follow if you have to deal with video playback. Recipe blogs also have compressed instructions, so it's not like you need to read all the fluff, but when first stumbling upon a recipe, a short video is definitely better at grabbing your attention and showing you the major points and the result, in a way that traditional blogs and cooking sites fail to replicate. Video is also better for conveying technique, but I prefer paper or cards while cooking something that's not completely new to me, for fewer handwashing interruptions.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#254

Post by nobody9999 »

tl;dr.

Edit: Okay. That was a "low effort" response. So I'll expand. That we even have such an abbreviation makes me think that maybe (contrary to Betteridge's Law[0]) the author of TFA might be on to something.

With so many different things fighting for your attention, it can be difficult to stay focused. It takes practice and discipline to shut out other things and maintain your focus on something. I don't claim to be expert in doing so, but I do try -- and fail some of the time.

I believe that maintaining focus/attention is a learned skill. One that isn't considered important to acquire/teach.

Once upon a time, there were fewer immediate distractions which enabled (forced?) us to focus our attention for extended periods. Nowadays, there are so many things fighting for our attention that it's more difficult to learn that skill.

Is that good or bad? I suppose that depends on your point of view.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...

Edit 2: Added the missing link.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#255

Post by Eumenes »

gochi wrote: post #237
Eumenes wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD numbers have doubled because people like drugs that make them productive, and the victimhood points you get for being "neurodivergent" ... aka, its all fake.

This idea that people are getting drugs to acquire victimhood points is so detached from reality, I am pleading with you, please spend less time on social media. It is not healthy and is changing your entire worldview. Your first swing at a reason doesn't make any sense either, as ADHD numbers have not solely affected adults. Even if you account for those "just wanting to be productive" by apparently ruining their en…

Collecting disorders and faking mental illness is a very hot at the moment, esp. among children (and troubled adults) - https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/29/well/mind/tiktok-mental-i...

The number of people in my life diagnosed with various disorders, with accompanying drugs, via short meetings with doctors they've met once is staggering.

Re: children, do you know many parents? I know many and many of their children are medicated for ADHD. They are usually active and healthy boys who don't like sitting still in class or have grown accustom to video game and screen time, so when they don't have those things, flip out. On demand entertainment and smart phones have created a screwed up reward system for young children. ADHD medication is usually the prescribed solution to that problem. By the time they reach middle school, they have no chance. Its an uphill battle to stay ahead with school and maintain all the hobbies/extracurriculars. I blame the parents, and while they're responsible, the FDA/"doctors"/pharma companies facilitate it.

I'm not saying people are faking things like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Mostly ADHD, anxiety, and depression disorders. Seems like 1/3rd of people I interact with have one of those, or all of them.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#256

Post by cubefox »

Zetice wrote: post #228
camel-cdr wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the tread: > > Primarily he focuses not on developing a Strong AI (AGI), but rather focusing on safety issues that such a technology would pose. > That's absurd at worst, science fiction at best, akin to worrying about manned flight safety in the 1500's. It sure seems more warranted now.

"Safety issues" are to him more like, "the AI will kill everyone to fill its objectives" and less like, "deepfakes are concerning." Though I'm sure he hopped on the "deepfakes are bad" bandwagon at some point to further his time in the spotlight.

> "Safety issues" are to him more like, "the AI will kill everyone to fill its objectives"

Yes, and he was way ahead of the curve here, since similar positions got a lot more mainstream in the past years and months. E.g. two of three AI Turing award winners (Hinton and Bengio) now say that superintelligent AI poses a serious extinction risk. OpenAI has also identified the alignment problem as a major issue. Even former AI skeptics like Douglas Hofstadter now broadly agree with this assessment. Yudkowsky's opinion was quite prescient.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#257

Post by AussieWog93 »

episiarch wrote: post #181
n0on3 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(I'm not sure if you were joking or not and I know it's probably not in the same spirit you intended it here / a bit OT but...) I've been using literally that exact expression for a while to describe the situation in which, during somewhat complex discussions within a group, in order to not be perceived as jerks participants are forced to follow an unnecessarily long, repetitive, trivial and most often also completel…

I didn't even have the attention span to unpack your first sentence.

I got what they were saying...

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#260

Post by Eumenes »

ImaCake wrote: post #245
Eumenes wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD numbers have doubled because people like drugs that make them productive, and the victimhood points you get for being "neurodivergent" ... aka, its all fake.

This is a fool’s opinion. Spend some time reading what people diagnosed with ADHD say about their disorder. Medication merely makes them able to keep up some of the time.

I've heard and met many - its just hearsay to me. Fools believe hearsay. Until there's some advanced blood test or biological marker, the diagnosis is complex social engineering or at best, pseudoscience.
Post reply on HN