A Master in the Making

Isn’t it incredible how much technology has impacted our lives? Almost every aspect of life has been in some way, shape, or form digitally impacted. This in return, has caused many of our thoughts, actions, and behaviors to become quite different than they had once been. Whether we like it or not, technology will continue to make advancements. While it isn’t fully clear how these advancements will affect us, it is important to think about the influence technology has already had on us.

While taking the New York Times Attention Experiment, I learned a lot about my ability to focus- or lack thereof… For those of you who have never heard of this experiment before, and to give a quick overview, this challenge tests participants to analyze a painting for 10 minutes straight. The goal of the experiment is to test the ability to remain focused on one specific image for a longer period of time. While I was able to make it through the whole 10 minutes and was just staring solely at the painting in front of me. That being said, I don’t think I’d ever be able to hold it any longer than that and was consistently waiting for the timer to end. I also kept trying to find things to think about within the picture, or would play around with my computer mouse zooming in and out of the painting playing with the tiny hand that controlled the mouse while looked like it was grabbing onto the painting every time I held down on the mouse.

While I understand that focus is generally a skill, I also think it is much more of a challenge for me as someone who struggles with ADHD. Throughout my life I have always struggled with my ability to focus and think this something that makes it difficult for me to focus no matter what it is that is happening around me. ADHD aside, I think my constant use of technology has become such a huge part of my life and has impacted my attention span even more so. More specifically, I think my constant usage of social media has made me unable to focus on anything for too much time. In fact, there have even been times where I click on Instagram just out of muscle memory and then I instantly swipe out of the app within the first couple of seconds of it opening.

Apps like TikTok have also made it easy to watch quick videos that are informational, entertaining, and tailored specifically to a user. It is actually quite scary how personalized the content is. According to prior research I have done on the TikTok algorithm, I learned that most videos follow a specific pattern after being posted. The success of a video is highly weighted by the engagement rates on the video. The higher the number of likes, comments, and shares, the more likely a video is to be pushed out to larger audiences.

The Stuck in a Scroll  project highlights just how addictive TikTok can be. Created by the professor Ben Stroller, the project tracks how frequently Stroller is active on TikTok and tracks him scrolling in real time. I didn’t realize until actually visiting his website but I was able to watch him on multiple occasions go on and off his TikTok within even a couple minute time span. This project has left me wondering if it has actually been effective for him to have something tracking him publicly. Does he find success in having something that holds him accountable for his time spent on social media? He doesn’t add any further commentary about the effects this project has had on him but still shows the importance of tracking social media hygiene.

Looking at the bigger picture, I think it will be extremely beneficial to continue to figure out ways that we can help prevent future generations from having technology become something that thoroughly impacts their attention spans and ability to focus. In the book Stolen Focus, there is a lot of discussion regarding the lack of research there currently is on how technology is directly impacting a person’s ability to focus. As I continue read further into the book, it will be interesting to see how Hari is able to find specific reasons for why technology is one of the possible reasons for the lack of focus people have.