Tucker Gandy Mrs Wintin English 111 18 March 2024 WP1:Our Loss of Focus In the excerpt from his book Stolen Focus Johann Hari argues that losing focus is more of a problem with a whole society's inability to keep focus rather than a personal problem, being that the system we live in is constantly decreasing our focus. He emphasizes this by interviewing several experts in the world of focus. Through talks with a professor from Queensland, Roy Baumeister, he found that many people have trouble with their minds constantly jumping around. Johann Hari argued that in society we have more things that decrease our attention spans rather than improve them. Through interviews with other professors like Gloria Mark, professor of informatics at the University …show more content…
We should be looking at whether we are developing an “attentional pathogenic culture” that improves our attentiveness. Hari says that we live in a system that hurts our focus every day. Losing focus is not much of a personal problem, but a world problem. In most books that say how to improve focus, they miss the main idea and that is what is the source of this loss of focus. Hari says this book finds the main source and that it is through our system that we lose focus. Hari suggests that the problem with focus is a problem with society as a whole, not just a personal problem. I agree with this because Hari says in the book “The truth is that you are living in a system that is pouring acid on your attention every day”(12). This is true because as a society we are constantly finding new ways to distract ourselves with things such as new technology, new phones or new games. I believe society is only finding ways to hurt our focus, rather than improve it. There is always something going on around the world that distracts us from focusing on one thing at a …show more content…
Books on improving focus have missed the point and that is the main reason for losing focus Hari says that “They have, on the whole, neglected to talk about the actual causes of our attention crisis”(Hari 12). If we live in a society where we are being told that our focus is a personal problem and not a world problem, then we will continue to lose focus. Our society should begin to find ways to improve focus, or ways to help with the problem of focus. As a society, we need to learn that our problem solving isn’t just a personal problem, but mainly a world problem. Once everyone learns that it's not just a personnel problem, but a world problem, then our focus will start to improve. Improving our focus, even just a little, will help us advance in things such as technology and help us improve as a society. Improving focus will help everyone attain what they need to do and the work they need to get done. Though society is a big problem, why everyone is losing focus, some people just don’t have good attention spans and can’t focus well. Though Hari doesn't talk about this, there is a loss of focus with things like
In the article, “Multitasking Can Make You Lose…Um…Focus,” Alina Tugend centralizes around the negative effects of multitasking. She shows that often with multitasking, people tend to lose focus, lack work quality, have an increase in stress, and in the end she gives a solution to all these problems. Tugend conveys her points by using understandable language, a clear division of subjects, and many reliable sources, making her article cogent.
In the chapter “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” from The New Brain, written by Richard Restak, Restak makes some very good points on his view of multitasking and modern technology. He argues that multitasking is very inefficient and that our modern technology is making our minds weaker. Multitasking and modern technology is causing people to care too much what other people think of them, to not be able to focus on one topic, and to not be able to think for themselves.
As a student in the school system, there are many mental conditions that could affect how they perform on a daily basis. One of the most prevalent is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This is defined as “a disorder characterized by a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity (Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine). There is much research that is currently being done on this subject as it does impact many students in the K-12 system. As of 2011, it was estimated that around 11% of students had been diagnosed with ADHD. While seems like a small amount of students, it equates to about 6.4 million (Data & Statistics). A huge amount of children in school are having trouble focusing in
In the course of reading “Attention Deficit”, it can feel at times as if Dr. Restak had come to the conclusion that technology is damaging to our brains and our personal lives long before putting pen to paper, then proceeded to search for evidence to back up his viewpoint. The ways in which he frames his findings and tries to give them meaning can be persuasive at times,
Technological advances though have been moving fast and some people would argue that it is too much for our brains to handle. As Restak states in his essay,” This technologically driven change in the brain is the biggest modification in the last 200,000 years (when the brain volume of Homo sapiens reached the modern level).” Our brains are experiencing a change in how it functions, and this last quote by Restak shows just how different the human brain has became since our last change in evolution. One of the changes that are forced on our brain is that of multitasking and when we are faced with the ability to focus our attention. Restak shows an example in a situation where there are crawlers at the bottom of a television screen. He comments how he could not keep focus on what he was watching and kept on looking at the words that were at the bottom of the screen because they were made to catch your attention. Another example is that of split screen interviews, which makes us divide our visual attention. With all of this we have become more high strung and our brains function have changed for the better. Restak would call this as us being more hyperactive, where we are now more frenetic, more distracted, and more fragmented. Yet all of this would be for the better for our species. The technology is only going the
From communicating with one another to researching for an essay, these high-tech gadgets are constantly being used. Unfortunately this is slowly becoming a danger to the human mind and an individual's ability to carry out simple tasks. This can be shown through the examples in Carr’s novel. He states multiple times that technology is damaging the brain and is struggling to do the simple tasks it should be able to do. Through his multiple examples, it is clear that technology is hurting us because we can no longer contemplate, concentrate, remember certain details, and more. Although, we cannot avoid using technology, we should be mindful of how often we use
Carr explains how the internet can distract us making it harder to focus on tasks. He explains how processing information has become harder. Notifications, ads, popups can make it difficult if you are trying to read an article or book (Carr 57). The internet has become the center of our attention (Carr 57). Carr is explaining how this is the reason why we are struggling to comprehend a certain piece of information. He adds in his article that scientists, researchers and educators have also noticed the difference in concentration. And in further detail, he explains that we fail to see the important information, thus affecting cognition. He says that the information we gather is not valuable unless we know the meaning behind it. Carr concludes with explaining that the more the internet evolves the less valuable information is to
Atlantic journalist Nicholas Carr confesses that he feels something has been “tinkering with his brain.” The internet, he fears, may be messing with our minds. We have lost the ability to focus on a simple task, and memory retention is steadily declining. He is worried about the effect the internet has on the human brain, and where it may take us in the future. In response to this article, Jamais Cascio, also a journalist for the Atlantic, provides his stance on the issue. He argues that this different way of thinking is an adaptation derived from our environment. Ultimately, he thinks that this staccato way of thinking is simply a natural evolution, one that will help to advance the human race.
Performing well in at certain tasks and retaining information both require a high level of attention. Multitasking requires that this attention be divided amongst different tasks. As a result, the some of the attention used for a certain task must now be used for other tasks, which affects the factors needed to complete it. Referring to an experiment that was discussed earlier, Wieth and Burns (2014) stated that even with the reward, the promise of incentive could not override the limits of people’s attention. Retaining information requires undivided attention. The key word is ‘undivided.’ According to this experiment, it is nearly impossible to have the same high level of focus while working on multiple tasks that a person would while working on one task. Once someone has reached the end of their attention span, their performance begins to falter. In a final experiment involving media multitasking and attention, Ralph, Thomson, Cheyne, and Smilek (2014) stated that multitasking can lead to mind wandering and lapses in attention, which distracts people from their tasks. These results show that once their attention is divided, it can lead to distractions and difficulty completing different tasks. It is difficult to complete one assignment while focusing on several others at the same time. Multitasking affects the attention needed for a task, which can affect everything
These two articles are similar in the sense that they agree that the internet and computational objects are reshaping our brain’s structure by changing our neural circuit. By using examples from their personal experiences to identify a trend in technology use, the authors illustrate that the more we bury ourselves in technology the more we are unable to understand material which leads to loss of concentration and the ability to think for ourselves. As an author, Carr finds the internet a beneficial tool, but it’s having a bad effect on his concentration span. Carr points this out by stating “Immersing myself in a book or lengthy article used to be easy, now I get fidgety, lose the thread and begin looking for something else to do” (39). He is no
The Pew Research Center focuses on technology-related things and conducted a survey for 2,462 teachers. Ninety percent of those teachers believed that technology was causing their students to become more easily distracted with shorter attention spans. An article on Huffington Post mentioned a study that showed that students could not focus on their homework for more than two minutes before having to look at some kind of electronical device like their phone or television. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that about half of students from the ages of eight to eighteen do their homework while using some kind of electronical device. Technology has affected our focus so much that we can't even focus on the little things for too long. Studies have even shown that people who use the internet at work change tabs or check their email about thirty-seven times an hour! All this multitasking can cause us to become more distracted. Sometimes, we can even become distracted towards the people around us.
When we develop the habit of consuming large volumes of web content we therefore diminish our “capacity for concentration and contemplation” in f...
Web. 8 January 2014. Csay, Jimmy. The “Young and Strong Unable to Concentrate”. November 23, 2013.
“Over-focusing” on some things causes the deficit of attention to other things: my clothes, people and environment around, other actions that are done automatically. Automatic actions are often made with ridiculous errors that affect my work and my self-esteem -> confidence. I can wear shoes of different pairs, or finding an elegant solution I can make stupid mistakes in the formatting of my program, and because of that nothing work. I need better manage such situations. Not sure how, however.
Kids of all ages around our country, have some difficulty to concentrate in school and get their task done. Some children start in an early age which develops a bad habit later on in life. Reason why this occurs in children and some adults is result of ADHD, a disorder that creates lack of concentration and lack of controlling energetic behavior. It can also mean that it’s hard for the person to be organized with their life and turns it into a habit. Children with poor concentration in school and educational work, can affect them later on in life if not treated or start to be organized in their own time.