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The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

theguardian.com

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Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#21

Post by epicide »

deepGem wrote: post #14
leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

but this is a comfortable lifestyle and I just keep on doing it. That does sound like an addiction, right? I have similar traits that I am actively working to wear off. My only addictions are Twitter, Hacker News and Yahoo Finance. I spend at least 4 hours in a day flipping across these. I must admit Twitter is quite helpful because my feed is well curated. YF is a total waste of time - I don't know why I keep checki…

> I can't even talk to other people about it because everybody's noses are in their phones everywhere. Is that weird?

I try to make it a point to ignore my phone while I'm eating lunch with people. I do wish others would do the same. Sometimes, it does require politely asking them to put their phone away and just spend lunch with me (typically just with friends, not everyone).

However, I think it annoys me more that it's becoming harder and harder to find restaurants that don't have 5+ TVs in your face no matter which way you turn.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#22

Post by epicide »

moltar wrote: post #11
hiei wrote: post #3

This is one of the reasons I still have a few subscriptions to magazines. No micro-distractions, just long form journalism.

Which magazines aren’t 90% ads and the remaining 10% long form ads? Genuinely interested as I haven’t seen any good mags in a while.

I really like reading 2600. Some articles get kinda... biased, but I think they do a decent job of striking a balance.

It's nice reading about tech-related things that aren't just blockchain or Facebook. The particularly fun ones are just little side projects someone writes about for a few paragraphs/pages. No real major point or grand purpose. Just a neat thing they did.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#23

Post by codyb »

deepGem wrote: post #14
leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

but this is a comfortable lifestyle and I just keep on doing it. That does sound like an addiction, right? I have similar traits that I am actively working to wear off. My only addictions are Twitter, Hacker News and Yahoo Finance. I spend at least 4 hours in a day flipping across these. I must admit Twitter is quite helpful because my feed is well curated. YF is a total waste of time - I don't know why I keep checki…

The new Apple screen time app really is a tremendous addition to see just how bad it is. A lot of time on my phone I'm doing things that I still consider productive like reading technical articles, and doing my anki cards, but the amount of time I can spend looking at my phone is absolutely outlandish in a given day of free time.

My big time sucks are hn, fark for news, and occasionally reddit. I'd like to at least drop reddit from my routine, and maybe only come to hackernews when I've gotten through every other article open on my phone.

Seem like good goals. The screen time app is nice because you can actually set limits on how much you can use an app then it bugs you with a warning.

I've been trying to read more lately, it's wonderful. Just finished For Whom the Bell Tolls, and started in on some Kafka. But it's definitely different then when I was younger and would just tear books up.

I think maybe I'll blacklist reddit at least with the proxy on my phone and then only browse that on the laptop which would be much rarer and far less likely since there's so many more interesting things to do on the computer (I just discovered the joys of tmux, how was I missing you all these years? With tmuxp, what a powerful set of tools.)

Anyways, that's my experiences, these little gadgets are incredibly addicting, and with three link aggregates with nigh on never ending pages of links it's ridiculously easy to spend a tremendous amount of time with your face in the screen.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#24

Post by deepGem »

codyb wrote: post #23
deepGem wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

but this is a comfortable lifestyle and I just keep on doing it. That does sound like an addiction, right? I have similar traits that I am actively working to wear off. My only addictions are Twitter, Hacker News and Yahoo Finance. I spend at least 4 hours in a day flipping across these. I must admit Twitter is quite helpful because my feed is well curated. YF is a total waste of time - I don't know why I keep checki…

The new Apple screen time app really is a tremendous addition to see just how bad it is. A lot of time on my phone I'm doing things that I still consider productive like reading technical articles, and doing my anki cards, but the amount of time I can spend looking at my phone is absolutely outlandish in a given day of free time. My big time sucks are hn, fark for news, and occasionally reddit. I'd like to at least d…

But it's definitely different then when I was younger and would just tear books up.

When I was 19, I finished John Grisham's The Partner in one sitting - without even getting up for food. Something like 24-30 hours non stop reading. There's no way in hell I'll be able to do that now.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#25

Post by borroka »

leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

I interviewed at Facebook and when I realized that the whole interview was about finding ways to make people spend as much time possible on Facebook and Instagram (which I use in moderation, I love to share a good pic of myself), I ran for dear life. Then, when they asked me how I would convince Mark that a certain experiment is needed, I ran faster. Bad vibes overall, Blade Runner was more cheerful.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#26

Post by un_montagnard »

moltar wrote: post #11
hiei wrote: post #3

This is one of the reasons I still have a few subscriptions to magazines. No micro-distractions, just long form journalism.

Which magazines aren’t 90% ads and the remaining 10% long form ads? Genuinely interested as I haven’t seen any good mags in a while.

The Economist.

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#27

Post by Swizec »

leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

Remember how stats used to say the average american spends 5 hours per day watching television?

Now they do that with The Internet.

Before telly that it was radio and newspapers. Before even that it was books.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Is it possible humans simply aren’t meant to be totally productive always on all the time and that we crave time wasting on a fundamental level?

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#28

Post by [deleted] »

borroka wrote: post #25
leggomylibro wrote: post #4

It seems like nowadays, we wring our hands about the effects of constant access to the internet on a near-daily basis. And isn't it kind of odd that the people working on these products in an 'individual contributor' capacity are often the same ones encouraging others to stay away from their platforms? Maybe that should tell us something. Anecdotally, most of the things that this article recommends are things that I…

I interviewed at Facebook and when I realized that the whole interview was about finding ways to make people spend as much time possible on Facebook and Instagram (which I use in moderation, I love to share a good pic of myself), I ran for dear life. Then, when they asked me how I would convince Mark that a certain experiment is needed, I ran faster. Bad vibes overall, Blade Runner was more cheerful.

[deleted]

Re: The lost art of concentration: being distracted in a digital world

#30

Post by erikpukinskis »

fogetti wrote: post #18

It's hard to take these articles seriously. Do these psychologists think that the average person's issue is they get distracted 60 times a day on their weekends? Who cares about that??? My problem is that I get interrupted 160 times a day in my workplace!!! How do these suggestions help me in my workplace? Shall I tell my boss that I can't reply his email right now because I am counting back in sevens from 1000 or wh…

Tell your boss you check email three times a day, in the morning, after lunch, and before leaving work. And if she/he has something urgent to please slack you directly. If necessary create a filter that lets people add an #urgent tag to the subject that sends you a notification.

Then turn off email and slack notifications for all but the rooms centered on things you are directly responsible for. Police those groups so they are only critical isssues that the whole team should be addressing. Create a second channel for casual discussion if need be.

I don’t know... maybe none of these work but just try something. If you can’t change anything at least keep a log of all your interruptions and the general category of issue, so that you can talk about it with your boss in an informed way at your next 1 on 1.

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