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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

#181

Post by baliex »

rapind wrote: post #106
winternett wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that app makers have realized we're muting our phones and disabling app notifications, they're doing them within the apps... It creates dependency and anxiety. The best way I've found to deal with the constant prodding is to simply leave my phone at home or in the car nearby whenever I want to enjoy a day or moment. It's a device I paid for, it shouldn't cause me stress. Google and Apple can easily set up reasona…

I recently find that anything on my phone or computer that tries to grab my attention, whether it's in an app or on a website, produces immediate annoyance from me. Even some genuinely helpful (but unnecessary) notifications. Popups, badges, dings, etc. I hear about how "people" get a dopamine hit from the dings or whatever, and meanwhile I'm basically the opposite.

Not all dings are equal.

If they're replies to messages you've sent (i.e. the continuation of a conversation) or your latest instagram post getting a like, you're gonna get that hit. Namely, for the validation that someone out there is interested enough in something you put out there to respond to it.

At the other end of the spectrum it's Uber Eats promos∆, news headlines, or Google Maps begging for a review. Maybe you'd place them elsewhere on the dopamine-spectrum but you get my point.

∆especially annoying because I want them on when I have a delivery coming, but off at all other times!

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

#182

Post by iknownothow »

fprct wrote: post #180

It's not really about the smartphones, I think. They are just a symptom of much more fundamental behavior (which may or may not be problematic - depending on how you look at it). All those 5-10 second breaks -- waiting for a light, waiting for an elevator... If it were not for the phone, what would you typically do? Focus on some random thought or two. Then snap out of it and carry on. The fact that now this is often…

I think you made a great observation about the 5-10 breaks but I disagree with your assessment that we're just replacing one random behavior with another.

The fact that I am "compelled" to look at my phone instead of staying with my thoughts is not an innocuous pattern. Why do I, with perfect predictability, prefer reaching for my phone rather than staying with my thoughts? And it's a fact that this compulsion to look at my phone exists even when I'm working on something important and not just when I'm standing in the elevator.

(My tone might be aggressive. I don't mean to offend, I just disagree).

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

#183

Post by scotty79 »

Books are slow and often teeming with filler content. Audiobooks are even slower than books and practically painfully so. When I had to paint walls for few hours I initially listened to audiobook but it was tortuous. My own thoughts are more interesting and less of a slog than a book read at that pace. Audiobook feels like my brain is shoved into a tarpit and held there foricbly.

It's really no wonder that your brain rejects all that when it tasted variety of information delivered at much higher speeds.

I don't think I wouldn't be able to focus on textbook for mathematical analysis that's so dense that reading two pages takes an hour ... but books filled with so so many words that were just excercise in language use for the author and carry barely any information? Mostly, no thank you. It's not a problem of focus. It's a problem of rising standards on what feels interesting.

Even the author of this essey admits he had no trouble reading a book when he finally found one that was actually interesting for him (because he felt it was about him and his self-percieved plight).

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

#184

Post by fprct »

iknownothow wrote: post #182
fprct wrote: post #180

It's not really about the smartphones, I think. They are just a symptom of much more fundamental behavior (which may or may not be problematic - depending on how you look at it). All those 5-10 second breaks -- waiting for a light, waiting for an elevator... If it were not for the phone, what would you typically do? Focus on some random thought or two. Then snap out of it and carry on. The fact that now this is often…

I think you made a great observation about the 5-10 breaks but I disagree with your assessment that we're just replacing one random behavior with another. The fact that I am "compelled" to look at my phone instead of staying with my thoughts is not an innocuous pattern. Why do I, with perfect predictability, prefer reaching for my phone rather than staying with my thoughts? And it's a fact that this compulsion to loo…

Good point.

Would you say that all your "interruption slots" are taken by a need to look at a phone or particular app? Aren't there still situations where you break your current focus (be it something important or just waiting in the elevator) with an actual thought not related to the phone?

I agree that position I've presented probably stands to some degree on the assumption that there still is a noticeable amount of non phone related interruptions of one's thought patterns. Otherwise my claim of equivalence would be stronger and require more arguments that I have at the moment.

From my personal experience (n=1) it's exactly the case - sometimes it's a phone, sometimes not, so that clearly directs my judgement. OTOH I find it unlikely that this is particularly atypical.

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

#185

Post by Graffur »

kristianc wrote: post #43

Although the attention span myth is one of those things that is taken to be almost idiomatic, there’s actually very little empirical evidence for it. There’s no such thing as an ‘average’ attention span, and even for those individual tasks it would be very much context dependent (where I’m sitting, what I’m doing at the time, my general opinion of the author, the mood I’m in). It’s a nice story, and it will invariabl…

The thing is that people can feel it themselves and see it in other people. It would be great if it is studied but there is something there.

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

#187

Post by gombosg »

winternett wrote: post #101
xerox13ster wrote: post #4

I did a digital detox in July of 2020, I had become overwhelmed with Discord and Reddit moderation and trying to Keep Up. I burned out hard. I turned off all electronics for a month and uninstalled the apps and restricted my phone use to calls and responding to 3 close friend's texts at a set time each day--I didn't keep it on me at all. No video games, no TV, no watch or music streaming. I had my library of local mu…

Now that app makers have realized we're muting our phones and disabling app notifications, they're doing them within the apps... It creates dependency and anxiety. The best way I've found to deal with the constant prodding is to simply leave my phone at home or in the car nearby whenever I want to enjoy a day or moment. It's a device I paid for, it shouldn't cause me stress. Google and Apple can easily set up reasona…

> Now that app makers have realized we're muting our phones and disabling app notifications, they're doing them within the apps... It creates dependency and anxiety.

This is so true and so widespread that I haven't even realized it's happening. I disabled most push notifications on Android and have the phone muted almost all day. Still, I'm fighting with attention fragmentation, decreased memory etc. Nowadays most apps/web apps you open have a 'notifications' tab, menu item etc. creating yet another inbox for us. (Which we probably don't need unless it's work related or something.)

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

#188

Post by throwawayarnty »

Graffur wrote: post #186
throwawayarnty wrote: post #148

Hackernews is also a huge source of distraction, but some people here won’t admit it.

Strange comment. Who doesn't admit it? Everything can be a distraction.

People think that hackernews is productive won’t admit it.

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

#189

Post by teddyh »

winternett wrote: post #171
eastbound wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stress. Especially on Twitter, every news today starts with “NEWS ALERT!” + a boring news or analysis that everyone knows. It produces stress. The content of the news is always highly disappointing.

Eventually the overload will destroy itself... Hang in there!

I fear that the market will stay irrational for longer than we can remain sane.

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

#190

Post by teddyh »

Waterluvian wrote: post #116

I’m developing a personal opinion that being on a phone all the time is like being high all the time. Eventually you look back and see thousands of hours you could have spent building something or learning an instrument or whatnot. Instead you just kinda pissed it away on gossip and getting anxious about events you have no control of. My most productive time on this phone is when I’m learning new stuff here on HN. Bu…

> I need to learn how to write code in short segments of as little as 15 minutes.

This, i.e. short cycle time, is one of the effects which TDD reportedly has. Write a tiny bit of test – write a tiny bit of code – test passes – refactor while all tests still pass – repeat.

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