Jj is for Jottings 115.  Digital Distraction.

 

WHAT IS DIGITAL DISTRACTION?

Digital distraction is that constant checking of phones and multi-tasking which we see going on around us all the time (or even engage in ourselves).  There is a theory that our ancient food-foraging survival instinct has evolved into info-foraging.  It is sort of a hijacking of the same system that was critical for our survival in terms of seeking out food.  It has now been directed at seeking out information, and the result is digital distraction.

A new book The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High Tech World explores the implications of, and brain science behind, this evolution.  I would call it devolution.   The book was written Adam Gazzaley, a neurologist and professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and research psychologist Larry D. Rosen.  Following are some of the key points of their research.

MULTI-TASKING.

When we switch between tasks, our performance suffers.  This can affect  every aspect of our cognition: our emotional regulation,  our decision-making, and our ability to learn.  It can also affect real world activities such as paying attention at school or during a lecture, our work, and driving a car.  And it can affect relationships – “real” interaction with people suffers enormously from digital distraction.

(You can read about the effects of digital distraction on poor adult attention span, and its effects on children.  It has similar effects on other adults.  A neighbour complained to me the other day that, when she and a friend arrange to go out for coffee, her friend pulls out her phone the minute they sit down at the table.  This applies to every one of her friends.  What on earth is the point of arranging to go out with someone and then effectively ignoring them? I suggested that she needed to find a new set of friends.)

 

DIGITAL DISTRACTION AND MEMORY.

The study also investigated how digital distraction affects working memory.  (See here for a definition of working memory.)  You would suppose that the most important factor in memory is focus – i.e. that you remember better when you focus on the material.  Whilst this is important, it turns out that how well you filter out the irrelevant information was even more important.  If you process information around you that is irrelevant to your goals, it will create interference. It degrades those representations in your brain and you will not perform at the same level.

The effects of digital distraction on memory is rather like having a hearing loss.  When you are not hearing properly the message is incomplete or distorted, and you can’t make clear representations in your brain.  Therefore you are trying to store a faulty representation.  When you try to retrieve that memory it will be degraded or difficult to retrieve.  For more on the effects of hearing loss on memory see here.

Filtering.

Filtering can be done subconsciously or actively and consciously.  Imagine if you were sitting in a classroom and it’s noisy or someone is talking next to you.   You would be trying to focus on the lesson.  You realise that irrelevant “noise” is getting into your brain so you try to ignore it – to filter it out.  The same thing happens in a restaurant.

Much of the time we are subconsciously filtering out irrelevant information.  Even when we’re not trying, our brain is busy filtering.  Our success at filtering is critical for our ability to perceive information, to remember it and then to make decisions about it.

Filtering in the classroom.

The authors of the book reported that the tendency to distraction is higher than ever before because of technology.  They say it is because of this unprecedented exposure to information all the time.  They also point to the very rapid reward cycle that many people, especially young people, experience in their social lives.   The habit of jumping between so many texts continuously, or the stimulation that’s prevalent in video games – these create digital distraction.

My experience and that of practically every teacher I talk to supports this.  We didn’t need studies to tell us!

One of the things they talk about in the book is the need for us to re-train ourselves to become comfortable with sustaining our attention on a single goal.  Young people, who may have never developed this skill, need to learn,  to appreciate and  to feel the value of sustained attention.

EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACTS OF DIGITAL DISTRACTION.

The effects of digital distraction on performance is one aspect of it.  But the effects also extend to creating anxiety, stress and lower states of mood.  I would venture to suggest that hopping around online and playing video games creates an almost permanent state of overstimulation.  And so does participating in the unspoken competition to get more and more friends and followers on social media.  (Even if numbers of likes and followers are no longer shown on social media, it is still something to chase.)  This is what people become addicted to.  The lower states of mood occur when they are not engaging in these high stimulation activities.

 

WHAT IS THE ANTIDOTE TO DIGITAL DISTRACTION?

Here are some suggestions, based on general research:

• Exercise has been recognised for a long time for its value for our health and now its value for our brains.
• Meditation and Mindfulness practices. There are easy to use mindfulness/meditation programs available for the classroom.  These provide a wonderful contrast to multi-tasking.
• Recognising the problem and consciously taking steps to address it.

Consciously addressing the problem: a story.

Here is a real-life example, very close to home.   My elder son, Kieran (who also administers the Facebook page because his mother does not otherwise engage in social media) is a highly intelligent young(ish) adult who was a voracious reader from an early age.  Many is the time I regretted teaching him phonics early in his school years, since it resulted in numerous battles over his making us late for school.  Why?  Because he was reading rather than getting dressed.  A few years ago I remember him telling me he had made a list of books he intended to read.  It was a very impressive list: wide-ranging in topic and cultural origin, and he began to work his way through it.

To my surprise he volunteered at Christmas time that he realised the number of books he read per year had dropped off to only 4 during 2018 and 7 in 2019.   Kier was still a voracious reader, but he realised that it had become mainly browsing social media and reading articles online.  He just wasn’t making the time to read properly.  He said that he had noticed his attention span has suffered as a result.   So he decided to set a goal of at least one book a month – i.e. 12 per year.  So far this year (mid-February) he has read four.  He fits perfectly into the third suggestion above.

Obviously, with children, it is the parents who need to be aware of what is happening and to take steps to avoid or rectify the situation.  You can find tips on how to help with young readers, and also with reluctant readers.

 

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