#attention-span — Public Fediverse posts

🦭 So, there's this "game" where you control a seal named Neil, who presumably has the attention span of a goldfish 🐟 and the excitement of a sloth 🦥. The "controls" are a jumbled mess of random keys, as if designed by a seal flopping on a keyboard 🎹. How about a game where we control the developer to make something playable instead? 🚀
https://neiltheseal.app/ #sealgame #attentionspan #gaminghumor #developercontrol #indiegame #HackerNews #ngated

🦭 So, there's this "game" where you control a seal named Neil, who presumably has the attention span of a goldfish 🐟 and the excitement of a sloth 🦥. The "controls" are a jumbled mess of random keys, as if designed by a seal flopping on a keyboard 🎹. How about a game where we control the developer to make something playable instead? 🚀
https://neiltheseal.app/ #sealgame #attentionspan #gaminghumor #developercontrol #indiegame #HackerNews #ngated

Fast news. Cartoon for Dutch newspaper Trouw.

#news #NewsCycle #journalism #media #AttentionSpan

Fast news. Cartoon for Dutch newspaper Trouw.

#news #NewsCycle #journalism #media #AttentionSpan

DATE: July 6, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Neuroscientists shed light on the illusion of learning from short videos

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-illusion-of-learning-from-short-videos/

Using social media applications to digest bite-sized educational content actually reduces a person’s ability to remember the information, according to new research. Watching rapid, fragmented clips captures sensory attention but impairs the deep cognitive processing required to pack away long-term memories compared to viewing a slightly longer, continuous video. These results were published in the journal Communications Psychology.

Short video platforms have exploded in popularity across the globe. Driven by highly tuned algorithmic recommendations, these applications deliver an endless feed of brief, visually stimulating clips. Given their highly engaging nature, many users have started treating these platforms as hubs for informal learning. Social media creators frequently post educational content attempting to summarize historical facts, scientific concepts, or news events in less than a minute.

Educational researchers already know that breaking an academic lecture into smaller, coherent chapters helps students retain information. That pedagogical strategy reduces the mental burden on the listener. However, the short videos found on social media are entirely different. They rely heavily on rapid scene changes, disconnected narratives, and intense auditory or visual effects to keep a viewer hooked.

The algorithms powering these short video platforms track user behavior intently, delivering a bespoke feed designed to maximize viewing time. Since users are rewarded with instant gratification in the form of novelty, their brains become accustomed to rapid cycles of stimulation. When a viewer attempts to switch gears and use the same application for serious learning, the underlying habits formed by the platform may fight against the sustained focus required for academic retention.

The problem with this format lies in how the human brain processes and stores new facts. A widely accepted psychological framework suggests that learning requires information to pass through several biological filters. First, a person observes an event, creating a fleeting sensory memory. If the person pays attention, that information enters working memory, which acts as a limited mental scratchpad. If someone continually shifts their attention to new stimuli, the previous thoughts decay before they can be copied into long-term storage.

Meiting Wei and Guang-Heng Dong, researchers based at Yunnan Normal University in China, suspected that the frenetic pace of social media clips would disrupt this chain of events. Along with their colleagues, they designed a sequence of three studies to test whether short videos are truly effective as educational tools.

To ensure a fair test, the researchers first had to rigorously match their video materials. They took a long documentary about travel destinations and extracted a ten-minute segment. For the short video condition, they chopped related footage into five to seven brief clips to mimic the rhythm of a social media feed. They interspersed these segments with non-informative filler shots, like silent aerial drone footage of landscapes. This ensured that the spoken word count and total factual information remained identical across both experimental setups.

In the first experiment, 180 college students participated in what cognitive psychologists call an incidental learning task. The students thought they were simply taking a relaxing break to watch travel videos. They had no idea they were going to be tested. Immediately after the ten minutes ended, the researchers sprang a quiz on the participants. They then administered a surprise follow-up quiz the very next day.

The individuals who watched the chopped up short videos scored lower on the immediate quiz than those who viewed the continuous documentary. The gap in performance indicated that the rapid context switching of the shorter clips prevented the brain from forming strong initial memories, even when the underlying factual information was identical in both videos.

The second experiment repeated the process with a new group of 185 students. This time, the study featured an intentional learning task. The researchers explicitly told the students to pay close attention because they would be graded on the material later.

Even with deliberate effort, the students in the short video group performed worse on the immediate test. The follow-up test the next day revealed an even greater cost to the fragmented format. The students who intentionally studied the short clips forgot a much higher percentage of their initial knowledge overnight compared to those who watched the continuous video. Putting more effort into focusing on the short videos was simply not enough to overcome the cognitive hurdles created by the format itself.

For the final phase of the project, the team wanted to observe the physical brain activity driving these memory failures. They recruited 59 new participants to watch the videos while resting inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The machine tracked blood flow in real time, highlighting which brain regions were working the hardest.

The researchers did not just look for isolated spikes in brain activity. They used a mathematical technique called inter-subject correlation to measure neural synchronization in the room. When an audience watches a well-crafted movie, their individual brain waves tend to sync up, rising and falling in unison. High synchronization occurs when a piece of media guides a group of people through the exact same sequence of advanced cognitive processing.

When the participants watched the continuous documentary, their brains synchronized deeply across several regions. The superior parietal lobule, an area involved in directing physical attention and integrating sensory input, synchronized heavily. The same was true for the precuneus, an area near the back of the brain tied to episodic memory, self-reflection, and organizing visual events into a coherent timeline. The shared activity suggests the students were actively building comparable mental maps of the content.

In stark contrast, watching the fragmented short videos destroyed that higher-level synchronization. Instead, the viewers’ brains only synchronized in regions responsible for immediate, automatic auditory processing and basic attention. This type of brain activity is known as bottom-up processing, relying on abrupt, flashy stimuli to command attention rather than an overarching narrative structure.

The short video viewers experienced heightened synchronization in areas like the middle frontal gyrus, which reacts to sudden shifts in the environment. This means the viewers were highly alert, but their cognitive resources were trapped reorienting to the flashing imagery rather than absorbing the spoken facts. A hyperactive sensory response leaves very little energetic capacity for the brain to extract meaning from the material.

Finally, the researchers analyzed functional connectivity, which measures how well different brain regions communicate with one another during a task. Forming a lasting memory requires the back of the brain, which processes visual and auditory input, to talk with the front of the brain, which handles executive control and decision making.

The rapid transitions inside the short videos fractured this communication. The connections between the visual cortex and the higher-level cognitive control centers grew weak. By constantly bombarding the senses with novel stimuli, the short clips appeared to trap the brain in a cycle of sensory tracking. The viewers were so busy processing the changing scenery that their brains lacked the bandwidth to package the facts for long-term storage.

Many educators have debated whether the modern classroom needs to adapt to shrinking attention spans by adopting a brisk, media-heavy teaching style. These results suggest a reason for pause. Leaning into ultra-short presentations might accidentally mimic the very digital habits that disrupt memory formation in the first place.

While these results highlight the cognitive toll of fractured digital media, the study authors acknowledge a few caveats. The research relied entirely on healthy college students. The memory impacts could be vastly different in younger children with developing brain structures, or in older adults.

The rigid environment of the brain scanner also prevented the team from simulating the physical aspect of mobile application usage. Participants could not swipe or scroll with their fingers, which is a major component of the dopamine loop associated with modern social media. Adding that physical interaction might alter how the brain allocates its limited attention reserves.

Future work will need to explore how physical scrolling behaviors interact with content formatting to alter how learning occurs. Interventions could also be designed to help students better pace their digital consumption. Until then, these findings suggest that treating brief, overly stimulating media as an educational resource holds hidden mental costs.

The study, “Learning via short videos impairs memory accuracy and reduces brain synchrony,” was authored by Meiting Wei, Yandan Li, Haosen Ni, Zhenglong Li, Jiang Liu, and Guang-Heng Dong.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-illusion-of-learning-from-short-videos/

-------------------------------------------------

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-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MemoryResearch #ShortVideoEffect #EducationalVideo #BrainSynchronization #CognitiveLoad #MediaLiteracy #LearningScience #AttentionSpan #LongTermMemory #VideoEducation

DATE: July 6, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Neuroscientists shed light on the illusion of learning from short videos

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-illusion-of-learning-from-short-videos/

Using social media applications to digest bite-sized educational content actually reduces a person’s ability to remember the information, according to new research. Watching rapid, fragmented clips captures sensory attention but impairs the deep cognitive processing required to pack away long-term memories compared to viewing a slightly longer, continuous video. These results were published in the journal Communications Psychology.

Short video platforms have exploded in popularity across the globe. Driven by highly tuned algorithmic recommendations, these applications deliver an endless feed of brief, visually stimulating clips. Given their highly engaging nature, many users have started treating these platforms as hubs for informal learning. Social media creators frequently post educational content attempting to summarize historical facts, scientific concepts, or news events in less than a minute.

Educational researchers already know that breaking an academic lecture into smaller, coherent chapters helps students retain information. That pedagogical strategy reduces the mental burden on the listener. However, the short videos found on social media are entirely different. They rely heavily on rapid scene changes, disconnected narratives, and intense auditory or visual effects to keep a viewer hooked.

The algorithms powering these short video platforms track user behavior intently, delivering a bespoke feed designed to maximize viewing time. Since users are rewarded with instant gratification in the form of novelty, their brains become accustomed to rapid cycles of stimulation. When a viewer attempts to switch gears and use the same application for serious learning, the underlying habits formed by the platform may fight against the sustained focus required for academic retention.

The problem with this format lies in how the human brain processes and stores new facts. A widely accepted psychological framework suggests that learning requires information to pass through several biological filters. First, a person observes an event, creating a fleeting sensory memory. If the person pays attention, that information enters working memory, which acts as a limited mental scratchpad. If someone continually shifts their attention to new stimuli, the previous thoughts decay before they can be copied into long-term storage.

Meiting Wei and Guang-Heng Dong, researchers based at Yunnan Normal University in China, suspected that the frenetic pace of social media clips would disrupt this chain of events. Along with their colleagues, they designed a sequence of three studies to test whether short videos are truly effective as educational tools.

To ensure a fair test, the researchers first had to rigorously match their video materials. They took a long documentary about travel destinations and extracted a ten-minute segment. For the short video condition, they chopped related footage into five to seven brief clips to mimic the rhythm of a social media feed. They interspersed these segments with non-informative filler shots, like silent aerial drone footage of landscapes. This ensured that the spoken word count and total factual information remained identical across both experimental setups.

In the first experiment, 180 college students participated in what cognitive psychologists call an incidental learning task. The students thought they were simply taking a relaxing break to watch travel videos. They had no idea they were going to be tested. Immediately after the ten minutes ended, the researchers sprang a quiz on the participants. They then administered a surprise follow-up quiz the very next day.

The individuals who watched the chopped up short videos scored lower on the immediate quiz than those who viewed the continuous documentary. The gap in performance indicated that the rapid context switching of the shorter clips prevented the brain from forming strong initial memories, even when the underlying factual information was identical in both videos.

The second experiment repeated the process with a new group of 185 students. This time, the study featured an intentional learning task. The researchers explicitly told the students to pay close attention because they would be graded on the material later.

Even with deliberate effort, the students in the short video group performed worse on the immediate test. The follow-up test the next day revealed an even greater cost to the fragmented format. The students who intentionally studied the short clips forgot a much higher percentage of their initial knowledge overnight compared to those who watched the continuous video. Putting more effort into focusing on the short videos was simply not enough to overcome the cognitive hurdles created by the format itself.

For the final phase of the project, the team wanted to observe the physical brain activity driving these memory failures. They recruited 59 new participants to watch the videos while resting inside a magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The machine tracked blood flow in real time, highlighting which brain regions were working the hardest.

The researchers did not just look for isolated spikes in brain activity. They used a mathematical technique called inter-subject correlation to measure neural synchronization in the room. When an audience watches a well-crafted movie, their individual brain waves tend to sync up, rising and falling in unison. High synchronization occurs when a piece of media guides a group of people through the exact same sequence of advanced cognitive processing.

When the participants watched the continuous documentary, their brains synchronized deeply across several regions. The superior parietal lobule, an area involved in directing physical attention and integrating sensory input, synchronized heavily. The same was true for the precuneus, an area near the back of the brain tied to episodic memory, self-reflection, and organizing visual events into a coherent timeline. The shared activity suggests the students were actively building comparable mental maps of the content.

In stark contrast, watching the fragmented short videos destroyed that higher-level synchronization. Instead, the viewers’ brains only synchronized in regions responsible for immediate, automatic auditory processing and basic attention. This type of brain activity is known as bottom-up processing, relying on abrupt, flashy stimuli to command attention rather than an overarching narrative structure.

The short video viewers experienced heightened synchronization in areas like the middle frontal gyrus, which reacts to sudden shifts in the environment. This means the viewers were highly alert, but their cognitive resources were trapped reorienting to the flashing imagery rather than absorbing the spoken facts. A hyperactive sensory response leaves very little energetic capacity for the brain to extract meaning from the material.

Finally, the researchers analyzed functional connectivity, which measures how well different brain regions communicate with one another during a task. Forming a lasting memory requires the back of the brain, which processes visual and auditory input, to talk with the front of the brain, which handles executive control and decision making.

The rapid transitions inside the short videos fractured this communication. The connections between the visual cortex and the higher-level cognitive control centers grew weak. By constantly bombarding the senses with novel stimuli, the short clips appeared to trap the brain in a cycle of sensory tracking. The viewers were so busy processing the changing scenery that their brains lacked the bandwidth to package the facts for long-term storage.

Many educators have debated whether the modern classroom needs to adapt to shrinking attention spans by adopting a brisk, media-heavy teaching style. These results suggest a reason for pause. Leaning into ultra-short presentations might accidentally mimic the very digital habits that disrupt memory formation in the first place.

While these results highlight the cognitive toll of fractured digital media, the study authors acknowledge a few caveats. The research relied entirely on healthy college students. The memory impacts could be vastly different in younger children with developing brain structures, or in older adults.

The rigid environment of the brain scanner also prevented the team from simulating the physical aspect of mobile application usage. Participants could not swipe or scroll with their fingers, which is a major component of the dopamine loop associated with modern social media. Adding that physical interaction might alter how the brain allocates its limited attention reserves.

Future work will need to explore how physical scrolling behaviors interact with content formatting to alter how learning occurs. Interventions could also be designed to help students better pace their digital consumption. Until then, these findings suggest that treating brief, overly stimulating media as an educational resource holds hidden mental costs.

The study, “Learning via short videos impairs memory accuracy and reduces brain synchrony,” was authored by Meiting Wei, Yandan Li, Haosen Ni, Zhenglong Li, Jiang Liu, and Guang-Heng Dong.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-illusion-of-learning-from-short-videos/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #MemoryResearch #ShortVideoEffect #EducationalVideo #BrainSynchronization #CognitiveLoad #MediaLiteracy #LearningScience #AttentionSpan #LongTermMemory #VideoEducation

🐢 Efficient C++? In 2023?! 😂 A riveting read on CPU cycles that assumes you have the attention span of a goldfish and the patience of a saint. 📈 Dive deep into #infographics because, apparently, nothing screams 'modern' like charts we've been ignoring since 1996. 📊
https://6it.dev/blog/infographics-operation-costs-in-cpu-clock-cycles-take-2-80736 #EfficientCpp #CPUcycles #ModernCharts #AttentionSpan #HackerNews #ngated

🐢 Efficient C++? In 2023?! 😂 A riveting read on CPU cycles that assumes you have the attention span of a goldfish and the patience of a saint. 📈 Dive deep into #infographics because, apparently, nothing screams 'modern' like charts we've been ignoring since 1996. 📊
https://6it.dev/blog/infographics-operation-costs-in-cpu-clock-cycles-take-2-80736 #EfficientCpp #CPUcycles #ModernCharts #AttentionSpan #HackerNews #ngated

The Dandelions

If this entire post appears in the body of your email, click the title to read it in its natural blog setting.

During the grand opening ceremonies of a worldwide sporting event the other day, six military jets in tight formation roared over the stadium, low in the sky, trailing coloured vapour plumes to match the host country’s flag. Their presence lasted but an instant; they weren’t there, then they were, then they weren’t.

It occurred to me that, prior to their arrival, no one in the crowd was likely thinking about them. In the brief moment they were overhead, everyone was. But mere seconds after they were gone, most had likely forgotten all about them again, attention shifted to what was happening next.

I considered the scene analogous to the ever-shrinking attention span of our human species. We tend to focus on what is right in front of us, but only while it’s in front of us. Once it isn’t, we switch attention to whatever is next in front of us. Like scrolling.

Thinking, rather than being a critical, contemplative brain activity, is being reduced to bits and bites lasting only seconds. Reacting, in fact, not true thinking at all. Stimulus/response in place of thoughtful consideration and planning.

We would be doomed, I think, if we were required to focus our whole being on something for an extended period of time, as our distant ancestors had to while stalking game for food on distant savannahs. Had they allowed themselves to be distracted as easily as we do, they’d have starved to death, and none of us would be here today.

Life is much like the appearance of those jets in a way. As individuals, first we weren’t here, now we are, and eventually we won’t be. Collectively, going back perhaps 300,000 years, modern humans, homo sapiens, weren’t here; now we are; eventually, if the fate of other species is any indicator, we may not be.

Science tells us that more than ninety-nine percent of all species of life that have ever inhabited Earth are now extinct. When one considers the enormous number of life-forms still extant and sharing the planet with us today, the overall number of living creatures that once were here and now are not is staggering.

Individually, we are similar to dandelions, if you think of it. We might look out the window one day and spy a dandelion despoiling the pristine, green expanse of our lawn. If we leave it to its own devices, the dastardly weed will grow apace (doubtless in company with scores of comrades); then it will spread its seeds, miniature, white parachutists blown on the wind; and then finally, it will wither and die.

Or, we could choose to interrupt its life-cycle by stomping it under our heel, exposing it to toxic chemicals, uprooting it, or even turning it into wine. Either way—whether we leave it or interfere with it—it wasn’t there, then it was, then it wasn’t.

We are the same. Many of us live out our proverbial threescore-and-ten—some less, some more—spreading our seed as we go, and then die a natural death. Others of us, beaten down ‘neath the harsh heel of neglect and apathy, die prematurely. Still others, afflicted with a wasting disease, perhaps exposed to toxic chemicals intended to stem its progress, slowly wither and die. And still more are violently uprooted from their homes by violence or starvation or natural disaster, and are left to die alone.

Mortality is a subject I think about more often now than when I was younger. I contemplate my own, of course, though I do not fear it. Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise; it’s going to happen whether it’s feared or not, so why waste time dwelling on it? As I wrote in one of my poetic offerings—

I haven’t the time to dwell on life’s finish,
‘Though I know it lurks, that’s certain.
When all has been said, I still look ahead
To life’s next opening curtain.

I confess, however, that the demise of our human species is something I do think about. Not because it will affect me directly; I’ll be long-embarked on whatever journey is next for me by then.

But increasingly, it seems to me, humankind is separating itself into two broad factions: the many drones who think rarely for themselves and react self-servingly to whatever stimuli they encounter, content with the base pleasures they eke out; and the despoilers, fewer in number, who think deeply and conspire self-servingly to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest.

I’m pretty sure there is a third group, much smaller, who think first of others, not themselves, and who fight the good fight against the drones and despoilers. But alas, they are running out of time to win that fight. All harbingers are pointing to cataclysmic changes in the earth’s traditional, heretofore dependable cycles, patterns we have known and depended on for our entire lives.

But the effects of those changes aren’t here yet, not in sufficient abundance to alarm the majority of us. It seems that, as a species, we won’t admit they exist—just as that crowd in the stadium didn’t know about the jets in advance.

We’ll know when the effects begin to announce themselves fully, though—earthquakes, floods, wildfires, drought, increasing temperatures, rising sea-levels, climate-forced migration, and, of course, mass death. We’ll pay attention then.

My fear is that, unlike the other examples I’ve mentioned, where things aren’t here, then are, and then aren’t again, the massive changes rushing pell-mell at us will not disappear. They will linger to become the new normal for millennia to come.

And thus, it is we of whom some far-in-the-future, interstellar observer might say, “Human beings? Yeah, they weren’t there, then for hundreds of thousands of years they were, and then they weren’t.”

I console myself that perhaps the dandelions will survive.

The Dandelions

If this entire post appears in the body of your email, click the title to read it in its natural blog setting.

During the grand opening ceremonies of a worldwide sporting event the other day, six military jets in tight formation roared over the stadium, low in the sky, trailing coloured vapour plumes to match the host country’s flag. Their presence lasted but an instant; they weren’t there, then they were, then they weren’t.

It occurred to me that, prior to their arrival, no one in the crowd was likely thinking about them. In the brief moment they were overhead, everyone was. But mere seconds after they were gone, most had likely forgotten all about them again, attention shifted to what was happening next.

I considered the scene analogous to the ever-shrinking attention span of our human species. We tend to focus on what is right in front of us, but only while it’s in front of us. Once it isn’t, we switch attention to whatever is next in front of us. Like scrolling.

Thinking, rather than being a critical, contemplative brain activity, is being reduced to bits and bites lasting only seconds. Reacting, in fact, not true thinking at all. Stimulus/response in place of thoughtful consideration and planning.

We would be doomed, I think, if we were required to focus our whole being on something for an extended period of time, as our distant ancestors had to while stalking game for food on distant savannahs. Had they allowed themselves to be distracted as easily as we do, they’d have starved to death, and none of us would be here today.

Life is much like the appearance of those jets in a way. As individuals, first we weren’t here, now we are, and eventually we won’t be. Collectively, going back perhaps 300,000 years, modern humans, homo sapiens, weren’t here; now we are; eventually, if the fate of other species is any indicator, we may not be.

Science tells us that more than ninety-nine percent of all species of life that have ever inhabited Earth are now extinct. When one considers the enormous number of life-forms still extant and sharing the planet with us today, the overall number of living creatures that once were here and now are not is staggering.

Individually, we are similar to dandelions, if you think of it. We might look out the window one day and spy a dandelion despoiling the pristine, green expanse of our lawn. If we leave it to its own devices, the dastardly weed will grow apace (doubtless in company with scores of comrades); then it will spread its seeds, miniature, white parachutists blown on the wind; and then finally, it will wither and die.

Or, we could choose to interrupt its life-cycle by stomping it under our heel, exposing it to toxic chemicals, uprooting it, or even turning it into wine. Either way—whether we leave it or interfere with it—it wasn’t there, then it was, then it wasn’t.

We are the same. Many of us live out our proverbial threescore-and-ten—some less, some more—spreading our seed as we go, and then die a natural death. Others of us, beaten down ‘neath the harsh heel of neglect and apathy, die prematurely. Still others, afflicted with a wasting disease, perhaps exposed to toxic chemicals intended to stem its progress, slowly wither and die. And still more are violently uprooted from their homes by violence or starvation or natural disaster, and are left to die alone.

Mortality is a subject I think about more often now than when I was younger. I contemplate my own, of course, though I do not fear it. Fearing death is like fearing the sunrise; it’s going to happen whether it’s feared or not, so why waste time dwelling on it? As I wrote in one of my poetic offerings—

I haven’t the time to dwell on life’s finish,
‘Though I know it lurks, that’s certain.
When all has been said, I still look ahead
To life’s next opening curtain.

I confess, however, that the demise of our human species is something I do think about. Not because it will affect me directly; I’ll be long-embarked on whatever journey is next for me by then.

But increasingly, it seems to me, humankind is separating itself into two broad factions: the many drones who think rarely for themselves and react self-servingly to whatever stimuli they encounter, content with the base pleasures they eke out; and the despoilers, fewer in number, who think deeply and conspire self-servingly to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest.

I’m pretty sure there is a third group, much smaller, who think first of others, not themselves, and who fight the good fight against the drones and despoilers. But alas, they are running out of time to win that fight. All harbingers are pointing to cataclysmic changes in the earth’s traditional, heretofore dependable cycles, patterns we have known and depended on for our entire lives.

But the effects of those changes aren’t here yet, not in sufficient abundance to alarm the majority of us. It seems that, as a species, we won’t admit they exist—just as that crowd in the stadium didn’t know about the jets in advance.

We’ll know when the effects begin to announce themselves fully, though—earthquakes, floods, wildfires, drought, increasing temperatures, rising sea-levels, climate-forced migration, and, of course, mass death. We’ll pay attention then.

My fear is that, unlike the other examples I’ve mentioned, where things aren’t here, then are, and then aren’t again, the massive changes rushing pell-mell at us will not disappear. They will linger to become the new normal for millennia to come.

And thus, it is we of whom some far-in-the-future, interstellar observer might say, “Human beings? Yeah, they weren’t there, then for hundreds of thousands of years they were, and then they weren’t.”

I console myself that perhaps the dandelions will survive.

DATE: June 9, 2026 at 08:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEED

TITLE: Ultra-processed foods may be stealing your focus even if you eat healthy

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260608040017.htm

A study of more than 2,100 adults found that eating more ultra-processed foods was linked to poorer attention and slower mental processing, even among people with otherwise healthy diets. Researchers also found higher consumption was associated with increased dementia risk factors, raising concerns about the hidden cognitive costs of heavily processed foods.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260608040017.htm

-------------------------------------------------

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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #UltraProcessedFoods #BrainHealth #CognitiveFocus #AttentionSpan #HealthyEating #MentalProcessing #DementiaRisk #FoodForThought #NutritionScience #ProcessedFoodRisks

DATE: June 9, 2026 at 08:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEED

TITLE: Ultra-processed foods may be stealing your focus even if you eat healthy

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260608040017.htm

A study of more than 2,100 adults found that eating more ultra-processed foods was linked to poorer attention and slower mental processing, even among people with otherwise healthy diets. Researchers also found higher consumption was associated with increased dementia risk factors, raising concerns about the hidden cognitive costs of heavily processed foods.

URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/06/260608040017.htm

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #UltraProcessedFoods #BrainHealth #CognitiveFocus #AttentionSpan #HealthyEating #MentalProcessing #DementiaRisk #FoodForThought #NutritionScience #ProcessedFoodRisks

#mwgic #2026 #AttentionSpan #Stereotypes #NeuralProcessing #Biology #Brain #Productivity

In grade school, they would drug you for this.

https://www.leravi.org/staring-out-window-not-procrastinating-brain-integration-18744/

#mwgic #2026 #AttentionSpan #Stereotypes #NeuralProcessing #Biology #Brain #Productivity

In grade school, they would drug you for this.

https://www.leravi.org/staring-out-window-not-procrastinating-brain-integration-18744/

Phone exhaustion. Is it time to bring back the landline?

#attentionspan #technology #mobile #restrictions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC4pvvQtnOQ

Phone exhaustion. Is it time to bring back the landline?

#attentionspan #technology #mobile #restrictions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC4pvvQtnOQ

Maybe I am old man yelling at clouds, but I really couldn't imagine being in school/university now. #Internet, especially mobile internet with its insidious nature, messed up my #AttentionSpan, #patience and #focus ability. I could compare this, I still remember my great focus and motivation in my school years.

I had internet at home when I started high school but rarely used it, only for info searching, not "to spend time there". Halfway in university years (my first Android #smartphone) I had that "scrolling and mobile gaming" phase which noticeably affected my focus ability first time. And in my first year in first serious job I fell into "long commute + much mobile data" trap.

Luckily I never noticed problems with book #reading I sometimes hear of, I still prefer good long novel rather than scrolling. And I feel less guilty when my day mysteriously disappears because of reading instead of mindless web surfing (and immediately forgetting what I found).

But there are some effects I notice regularly. I am easily bored/annoyed/tired on longer work meetings. I can't imagine I could sit on 2 h long lectures again. I can rarely JUST WAIT for something, tram, meeting, boiling water, most times I take my phone. Not mentioning taking phone to toilet, which I ever resisted for few years. And sometimes I have to actively fight against this automatic urge to check web, to get chores done. It also gave me this not so healthy mentality of seeking shortcuts and minimizing/avoiding effort.

I feel affected even when I started scrolling at ~23 years old. I expect children starting in much younger ages, before they develop good discipline and attention span, could have much serious problems.

#scrolling #doomscrolling #web #addiction

Maybe I am old man yelling at clouds, but I really couldn't imagine being in school/university now. #Internet, especially mobile internet with its insidious nature, messed up my #AttentionSpan, #patience and #focus ability. I could compare this, I still remember my great focus and motivation in my school years.

I had internet at home when I started high school but rarely used it, only for info searching, not "to spend time there". Halfway in university years (my first Android #smartphone) I had that "scrolling and mobile gaming" phase which noticeably affected my focus ability first time. And in my first year in first serious job I fell into "long commute + much mobile data" trap.

Luckily I never noticed problems with book #reading I sometimes hear of, I still prefer good long novel rather than scrolling. And I feel less guilty when my day mysteriously disappears because of reading instead of mindless web surfing (and immediately forgetting what I found).

But there are some effects I notice regularly. I am easily bored/annoyed/tired on longer work meetings. I can't imagine I could sit on 2 h long lectures again. I can rarely JUST WAIT for something, tram, meeting, boiling water, most times I take my phone. Not mentioning taking phone to toilet, which I ever resisted for few years. And sometimes I have to actively fight against this automatic urge to check web, to get chores done. It also gave me this not so healthy mentality of seeking shortcuts and minimizing/avoiding effort.

I feel affected even when I started scrolling at ~23 years old. I expect children starting in much younger ages, before they develop good discipline and attention span, could have much serious problems.

#scrolling #doomscrolling #web #addiction

In this 60-second snooze-fest about AI permission fatigue, we are treated to the groundbreaking revelation that people tend to skim AI #commands instead of reading them like a Tolstoy novel. 💤 Bravo, you've managed to encapsulate humanity's attention span issues in a game nobody will play twice. 🎮👏
https://llmgame.scalex.dev #AIpermissionFatigue #AttentionSpan #Skimming #GamingHumor #HumanBehavior #HackerNews #ngated

In this 60-second snooze-fest about AI permission fatigue, we are treated to the groundbreaking revelation that people tend to skim AI #commands instead of reading them like a Tolstoy novel. 💤 Bravo, you've managed to encapsulate humanity's attention span issues in a game nobody will play twice. 🎮👏
https://llmgame.scalex.dev #AIpermissionFatigue #AttentionSpan #Skimming #GamingHumor #HumanBehavior #HackerNews #ngated

The common foods that are messing with your ability to focus — even if the rest of your diet is healthy

Here’s something to chew on. Brains require nutrients from a variety of f…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #attentionspan #BalancedDiet #Cognitivefunction #dementia #foodsthatarehighinfat #healthyfats #Mediterranean #popularfoods #UPFs
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2640003/the-common-foods-that-are-messing-with-your-ability-to-focus-even-if-the-rest-of-your-diet-is-healthy/

The common foods that are messing with your ability to focus — even if the rest of your diet is healthy

Here’s something to chew on. Brains require nutrients from a variety of f…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #attentionspan #BalancedDiet #Cognitivefunction #dementia #foodsthatarehighinfat #healthyfats #Mediterranean #popularfoods #UPFs
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2640003/the-common-foods-that-are-messing-with-your-ability-to-focus-even-if-the-rest-of-your-diet-is-healthy/

The common foods that are messing with your ability to focus — even if the rest of your diet is healthy https://www.diningandcooking.com/2640003/the-common-foods-that-are-messing-with-your-ability-to-focus-even-if-the-rest-of-your-diet-is-healthy/ #AttentionSpan #BalancedDiet #CognitiveFunction #dementia #FoodsThatAreHighInFat #HealthyFats #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #PopularFoods #UPFs

The common foods that are messing with your ability to focus — even if the rest of your diet is healthy https://www.diningandcooking.com/2640003/the-common-foods-that-are-messing-with-your-ability-to-focus-even-if-the-rest-of-your-diet-is-healthy/ #AttentionSpan #BalancedDiet #CognitiveFunction #dementia #FoodsThatAreHighInFat #HealthyFats #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #PopularFoods #UPFs

This Sneaky Food Could Be the Cause of Your Brain Fog

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Why UPFs May Alter Your Attention SpanGetty/WH Illus…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #attentionspan #BarbaraCardoso #CliffordSegil #KeriGans #Mediterranean #MonashUniversity #ProvidenceSaintJohn’sHealthCenter #studyauthor
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2626259/this-sneaky-food-could-be-the-cause-of-your-brain-fog/

This Sneaky Food Could Be the Cause of Your Brain Fog

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Why UPFs May Alter Your Attention SpanGetty/WH Illus…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #MediterraneanDiet #attentionspan #BarbaraCardoso #CliffordSegil #KeriGans #Mediterranean #MonashUniversity #ProvidenceSaintJohn’sHealthCenter #studyauthor
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2626259/this-sneaky-food-could-be-the-cause-of-your-brain-fog/

This Sneaky Food Could Be the Cause of Your Brain Fog https://www.diningandcooking.com/2626259/this-sneaky-food-could-be-the-cause-of-your-brain-fog/ #AttentionSpan #BarbaraCardoso #CliffordSegil #KeriGans #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #MonashUniversity #ProvidenceSaintJohn’sHealthCenter #StudyAuthor

This Sneaky Food Could Be the Cause of Your Brain Fog https://www.diningandcooking.com/2626259/this-sneaky-food-could-be-the-cause-of-your-brain-fog/ #AttentionSpan #BarbaraCardoso #CliffordSegil #KeriGans #Mediterranean #MediterraneanDiet #MonashUniversity #ProvidenceSaintJohn’sHealthCenter #StudyAuthor

🎩✨ Ah, the complex machine that is this article—proclaiming the genius of a semi-obscure Soviet hero while simultaneously lauding the #transistors that power our TikTok addiction. 🤔🤖 Never mind, dear reader, that the piece takes longer to read than the average person's attention span can endure in our digital age. 📱📉
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-worlds-most-complex-machine/ #SovietHero #DigitalAge #AttentionSpan #TikTokCulture #HackerNews #ngated

🎩✨ Ah, the complex machine that is this article—proclaiming the genius of a semi-obscure Soviet hero while simultaneously lauding the #transistors that power our TikTok addiction. 🤔🤖 Never mind, dear reader, that the piece takes longer to read than the average person's attention span can endure in our digital age. 📱📉
https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-worlds-most-complex-machine/ #SovietHero #DigitalAge #AttentionSpan #TikTokCulture #HackerNews #ngated

🎤🚀 Afrika Bambaataa, the 'almighty' hip-hop #pioneer, has left the building at 68. 🙄 #BBC had to remind us 12 times it's the #news, in case we forgot where we were. 📺👉 #RIP, Bambaataa, but also RIP to our attention span navigating BBC's infinite menus. 🤦‍♂️🔍
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2evppm30p7o #AfrikaBambaataa #HipHop #AttentionSpan #HackerNews #ngated

🎤🚀 Afrika Bambaataa, the 'almighty' hip-hop #pioneer, has left the building at 68. 🙄 #BBC had to remind us 12 times it's the #news, in case we forgot where we were. 📺👉 #RIP, Bambaataa, but also RIP to our attention span navigating BBC's infinite menus. 🤦‍♂️🔍
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2evppm30p7o #AfrikaBambaataa #HipHop #AttentionSpan #HackerNews #ngated

How Watching Béla Tarr’s 7.5-Hour Epic Restored Faith in Our Attention Span

📰 Original title: Watching a 7.5-Hour Movie in Theaters Made Me More Hopeful About Our Collective Brain Rot

🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Usuarios: It's clickbait ⚠️

View full AI summary: https://killbait.com/en/how-watching-bela-tarrs-7-5-hour-epic-restored-faith-in-our-attention-span/?redirpost=c2443af0-3493-4463-bb87-7776f4d4150e

#cinema #slowcinema #attentionspan #bélatarr

If people’s #attentionspan is so sort nowadays, how do they manage to listen to so many #podcasts, which seem, on average, to be about 246 minutes long?

🔧🤖 Behold, the "Context Gateway" – because clearly, AI agents are drowning in their own #verbosity without a superhero cape of "history compaction." 🚀 If only compressing my attention span while reading this was as easy! 📉📚
https://github.com/Compresr-ai/Context-Gateway #ContextGateway #AIagents #historyCompaction #attentionSpan #readability #HackerNews #ngated

🔧🤖 Behold, the "Context Gateway" – because clearly, AI agents are drowning in their own #verbosity without a superhero cape of "history compaction." 🚀 If only compressing my attention span while reading this was as easy! 📉📚
https://github.com/Compresr-ai/Context-Gateway #ContextGateway #AIagents #historyCompaction #attentionSpan #readability #HackerNews #ngated

I've noticed that whenever I post anything over 100 words, up to half a dozen followers go away (though if boosts occur, then departures and arrivals mostly cancel out). My choice of topic doesn't even make a difference.

Still, I try to write at least 100 words per post semi-regularly, to help me avoid becoming a lazy or superficial communicator. Accordingly, I now declare that I'm developing a new post that'll greatly exceed 100 words.

If that distresses—up to half a dozen of—you, then feel free to leave at this time.

Just want to warn you.

#AttentionSpan

I've noticed that whenever I post anything over 100 words, up to half a dozen followers go away (though if boosts occur, then departures and arrivals mostly cancel out). My choice of topic doesn't even make a difference.

Still, I try to write at least 100 words per post semi-regularly, to help me avoid becoming a lazy or superficial communicator. Accordingly, I now declare that I'm developing a new post that'll greatly exceed 100 words.

If that distresses—up to half a dozen of—you, then feel free to leave at this time.

Just want to warn you.

#AttentionSpan

STATE / MINUS 9 / POSITIVE NOISE / ATTENTION SPAN

https://grpunkflyers.notopia.dev/flyers/1573/

Matt Damon: Netflix dumbs down movies for attention-impaired phone addicts

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.theblaze.com/align/matt-damon-netflix-dumbs-down-movies-for-attention-impaired-phone-addicts

Social media trains your attention span to shrink. Brain Habit: Offline Quiz Game trains it to expand. Competing business models. #AttentionSpan #Focus #CognitiveHealth #Simple #DataPrivacy #OnDevice #iOS26 #Privacy #Productivity #Focus #Minimalism #AI #Private

Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It – ELLE Canada Magazine – Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle Trends & Celebrity News

Health & Fitness

Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It

Anna Lembke, addiction expert and author of Dopamine Nation, calls smartphones “modern-day hypodermic needles,” as they deliver digital dopamine 24-7 and make users vulnerable to compulsive use. Is a “dopamine detox” the key to breaking the habit?

by : Jennifer Berry– Jan 6th, 2026

I sit down to respond to emails on my laptop. I make it through two messages before I grab my iPhone and open TikTok. I scroll through videos for five minutes (or was it 10?), send a particularly funny video skewering the faux urgency of corporate America to the group chat and put my phone away. Back to emails. A few minutes later, my phone is mysteriously in my hand again, and I’m seeing what’s happening on Instagram. Boring. I check text messages and respond to one. Ooooohhh, has the Ssense sale started yet? I stop myself. What was I supposed to be doing again?

Flashes of TikTok videos about adult women with ADHD are running through my head like a film reel when I remember an ad I was recently served for a habit-building app that promises to cure “dopamine addiction,” among other things. Am I a dopamine addict with a latent attention disorder? Or just the average chronically online (elder) millennial who’s glued to their phone for work and entertainment?

Harvard Medical School defines dopamine as a neuro-transmitter that helps us feel pleasure as part of the brain’s reward system. You know that flutter of good vibes you feel when clicking “purchase” in your favourite shopping app or after you’ve had a good old-fashioned roll in the hay? That’s a release of dopamine, or a “dopamine rush.”

While one can’t technically be addicted to dopamine itself, the role dopamine plays in addiction is very real, says Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic and author of the book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. “Dopamine is the ‘go’ signal,” she explains—the one that tells our brains we should keep doing a particular behaviour. And over time, our brains get accustomed to high dopamine levels, which means we require more intense stimuli to feel the same amount of pleasure. “This leads to tolerance, where now we need more reinforcing substances and behaviours to feel any kind of interest or salience or pleasure at all,” says Lembke. “And when we’re not using, we’re in withdrawal.” This explains why scrolling sessions can get longer and longer—the behaviour needs to escalate to generate the same rush.

Lembke studies all forms of addiction, from drugs and sex to online gambling and digital devices. She’s one of many authors and academics, like The Anxious Generation’s Jonathan Haidt, who caution against our reliance on screens and algorithms and the quick, cheap hits of dopamine they’re laced with.

When I ask Lembke if my habitual phone-grabbing could be an addiction, she doesn’t attempt to diagnose me in a 30-minute interview but says that her threshold for a smartphone addiction would be much higher than what I’d described. (Phew.) “There’s problematic or risky behaviour that I would say most of us fall prey to, even if we’re not meeting the criteria for addiction,” she says. That doesn’t mean treating the device like an appendage is without consequences—like frying your attention span, which it seems to be doing to me.

“These devices have, in a sense, trained our minds to interrupt ourselves, thereby preventing the deep concentration and gratifying flow state—which are in themselves sources of healthy dopamine—we could get into if we weren’t intermittently distracted by these devices.”

“The fracturing of our attention [span] is something that is resulting from our use of these devices,” Lembke confirms. “They’re very engaging. So for our reward pathways, [using them is] soothing and frictionless. It’s not effortful, and it’s an instant feel-good. As a result, we’re not building up the kinds of mental calluses we need to tolerate frustration, to wait for answers, to be uncertain, to tolerate ambiguity.

“When it comes to what you described, that’s a great example of how these devices have, in a sense, trained our minds to interrupt ourselves, thereby preventing the deep concentration and gratifying flow state—which are in themselves sources of healthy dopamine—we could get into if we weren’t intermittently distracted by these devices.”

Lembke suggests that perhaps I’m reaching for my phone (and a quick hit of instant gratification) when I’m encountering something slightly uncomfortable in my work. “If you reflect on distraction and consumption, what you’ll probably observe is that the moments when you reflexively grab your phone are moments when you’ve encountered a little bit of a roadblock in the work you’re doing—a moment when you’re not exactly sure what the next step is.” This is the crux of digital addiction: We don’t want to feel discomfort for even a moment (and that uneasiness could be boredom, tension with a co-worker or household chores you need to tackle), so we keep reaching for the thing that offers a temporary respite.

Lembke says that we have to train ourselves to accept certain levels of pain in order to feel pleasure. In the case of my constant self-interruptions, that pleasure would be the satisfaction of getting into a focused state. “The best way to deepen your work is to actually pause there and let yourself just sit in those eddying waters for a while,” she says. “Eventually, your mind will produce what the next step should be.” In regularly reaching for my emotional-support device, I’m not letting myself get into deep, challenging work. And I’m also not reaping the bigger reward that comes from doing hard things.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It | ELLE Canada Magazine | Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle Trends & Celebrity News

Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It – ELLE Canada Magazine – Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle Trends & Celebrity News

Health & Fitness

Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It

Anna Lembke, addiction expert and author of Dopamine Nation, calls smartphones “modern-day hypodermic needles,” as they deliver digital dopamine 24-7 and make users vulnerable to compulsive use. Is a “dopamine detox” the key to breaking the habit?

by : Jennifer Berry– Jan 6th, 2026

I sit down to respond to emails on my laptop. I make it through two messages before I grab my iPhone and open TikTok. I scroll through videos for five minutes (or was it 10?), send a particularly funny video skewering the faux urgency of corporate America to the group chat and put my phone away. Back to emails. A few minutes later, my phone is mysteriously in my hand again, and I’m seeing what’s happening on Instagram. Boring. I check text messages and respond to one. Ooooohhh, has the Ssense sale started yet? I stop myself. What was I supposed to be doing again?

Flashes of TikTok videos about adult women with ADHD are running through my head like a film reel when I remember an ad I was recently served for a habit-building app that promises to cure “dopamine addiction,” among other things. Am I a dopamine addict with a latent attention disorder? Or just the average chronically online (elder) millennial who’s glued to their phone for work and entertainment?

Harvard Medical School defines dopamine as a neuro-transmitter that helps us feel pleasure as part of the brain’s reward system. You know that flutter of good vibes you feel when clicking “purchase” in your favourite shopping app or after you’ve had a good old-fashioned roll in the hay? That’s a release of dopamine, or a “dopamine rush.”

While one can’t technically be addicted to dopamine itself, the role dopamine plays in addiction is very real, says Anna Lembke, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic and author of the book Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. “Dopamine is the ‘go’ signal,” she explains—the one that tells our brains we should keep doing a particular behaviour. And over time, our brains get accustomed to high dopamine levels, which means we require more intense stimuli to feel the same amount of pleasure. “This leads to tolerance, where now we need more reinforcing substances and behaviours to feel any kind of interest or salience or pleasure at all,” says Lembke. “And when we’re not using, we’re in withdrawal.” This explains why scrolling sessions can get longer and longer—the behaviour needs to escalate to generate the same rush.

Lembke studies all forms of addiction, from drugs and sex to online gambling and digital devices. She’s one of many authors and academics, like The Anxious Generation’s Jonathan Haidt, who caution against our reliance on screens and algorithms and the quick, cheap hits of dopamine they’re laced with.

When I ask Lembke if my habitual phone-grabbing could be an addiction, she doesn’t attempt to diagnose me in a 30-minute interview but says that her threshold for a smartphone addiction would be much higher than what I’d described. (Phew.) “There’s problematic or risky behaviour that I would say most of us fall prey to, even if we’re not meeting the criteria for addiction,” she says. That doesn’t mean treating the device like an appendage is without consequences—like frying your attention span, which it seems to be doing to me.

“These devices have, in a sense, trained our minds to interrupt ourselves, thereby preventing the deep concentration and gratifying flow state—which are in themselves sources of healthy dopamine—we could get into if we weren’t intermittently distracted by these devices.”

“The fracturing of our attention [span] is something that is resulting from our use of these devices,” Lembke confirms. “They’re very engaging. So for our reward pathways, [using them is] soothing and frictionless. It’s not effortful, and it’s an instant feel-good. As a result, we’re not building up the kinds of mental calluses we need to tolerate frustration, to wait for answers, to be uncertain, to tolerate ambiguity.

“When it comes to what you described, that’s a great example of how these devices have, in a sense, trained our minds to interrupt ourselves, thereby preventing the deep concentration and gratifying flow state—which are in themselves sources of healthy dopamine—we could get into if we weren’t intermittently distracted by these devices.”

Lembke suggests that perhaps I’m reaching for my phone (and a quick hit of instant gratification) when I’m encountering something slightly uncomfortable in my work. “If you reflect on distraction and consumption, what you’ll probably observe is that the moments when you reflexively grab your phone are moments when you’ve encountered a little bit of a roadblock in the work you’re doing—a moment when you’re not exactly sure what the next step is.” This is the crux of digital addiction: We don’t want to feel discomfort for even a moment (and that uneasiness could be boredom, tension with a co-worker or household chores you need to tackle), so we keep reaching for the thing that offers a temporary respite.

Lembke says that we have to train ourselves to accept certain levels of pain in order to feel pleasure. In the case of my constant self-interruptions, that pleasure would be the satisfaction of getting into a focused state. “The best way to deepen your work is to actually pause there and let yourself just sit in those eddying waters for a while,” she says. “Eventually, your mind will produce what the next step should be.” In regularly reaching for my emotional-support device, I’m not letting myself get into deep, challenging work. And I’m also not reaping the bigger reward that comes from doing hard things.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Our Phones Are Wrecking Our Attention Span; Here’s What to Do About It | ELLE Canada Magazine | Beauty, Fashion and Lifestyle Trends & Celebrity News

I’m going live with another nature meditation in about 20 minutes. Today the session is about our declining attention span and how to improve it. -
https://youtu.be/Oh93OPhqCHo?si=m5WbYtu9K4MPKDpN

#NatureMeditation #AttentionSpan #Mindfulness #LiveSession #Focus #MentalHealth #WellnessJourney #MeditateWithMe #StressRelief #LiveNow #TMGcommunity

I’m going live with another nature meditation in about 20 minutes. Today the session is about our declining attention span and how to improve it. -
https://youtu.be/Oh93OPhqCHo?si=m5WbYtu9K4MPKDpN

#NatureMeditation #AttentionSpan #Mindfulness #LiveSession #Focus #MentalHealth #WellnessJourney #MeditateWithMe #StressRelief #LiveNow #TMGcommunity

Struggling to focus in this digital world? You’re not alone. Research shows our attention spans have shrunk to 47 seconds. Distractions can be dangerous, from missing red lights to ignoring health warnings.

But there’s hope: simple mindfulness, better habits, and phone boundaries can help us reclaim focus and live more present.

Read my latest article: https://www.patreon.com/posts/why-cant-i-focus-146585519?uutm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_contentjoin_link

#Focus #Concentration #Mindfulness #Productivity #DigitalDetox #AttentionSpan #SelfImprovement #MentalHealth

Struggling to focus in this digital world? You’re not alone. Research shows our attention spans have shrunk to 47. Distractions can be dangerous, from missing red lights to ignoring health warnings.

But there’s hope: simple mindfulness, better habits, and phone boundaries can help us reclaim focus and live more present.

Read my latest article: https://www.patreon.com/posts/why-cant-i-focus-146585519?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

#Focus #Concentration #Mindfulness #Productivity #DigitalDetox #AttentionSpan #SelfImprovement #MentalHealth

#ArtistUnknown
Unfound, certainly.

I dunno, have I already posted this one? Feh!
😉

#StreetArt #graffiti #AttentionSpan #London #photography

🚀🎉 Behold the #groundbreaking innovation: a ForYou page, but for essays! 📚✨ Because clearly what the Internet was missing was yet another algorithm to tell us what to read, as if our attention spans needed more confusing. 🙄 #Revolutionary #NotReally
https://www.browserbuddy.com/ #Innovation #ForYouPage #Essays #InternetTrends #AttentionSpan #HackerNews #ngated