12 Seconds or Less

By Deputy Editor Tiernán Berhe Ó Ruairc 

One's attention span is how long they can remain fixated on any singular thing. The title of this piece takes its name from the Microsoft Corp study in 2015, in which 112 people from a group of 2000 were monitored using electroencephalograms or EEGs to determine brain function during various activities. The results concluded that the average attention span was 8.25 seconds, making it shorter than that of a goldfish. A stark statistic considering its association with internet and digital stimulation in the western hemisphere, and even scarier as we continue to delve into a rabbit hole of satiating online lives.

However, the number of 8.25 seconds is contested by some, which includes Art Kramer, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University, argues the numbers are a little less drastic and people in fact have an attention span of 45 seconds, which is still a significant decrease from previous data of 150 seconds or 2 ½ minutes. This decrease Kramer claims is the result of the ‘bombardment of information’ we face on a constant basis to be the downfall of the human attention span. The access of information ‘at just a click away’ is allowing people to chop and change their focus from topic to topic at will and at ease without any real consequences at a moment's notice, detraining the brain from being able to analyse anything for extended periods without constant new stimulation. The other issue noted by Kramer is the constant presence of screens in our lives. He notes the screens in our pockets, homes and even in the car, where we are constantly told not to use our phones, are now equipped with bright screens screaming notifications at us as we travel further dampening hopes of human attention remaining on the road for the appropriate length of time.  

The 2019 study by Tremolada et al found that there were disparities in the attention span of children aged 6-10 years old dependent on gender, school grade and of course age. The results primarily noted the tendency of younger girls to rank higher on distractibility metres and are more likely to behave with compulsive reaction tendencies. While the study is interesting and an insight into a niche part of the brain, the constant in almost every other study has been screen time and information accessibility. CNN noted that once people lose focus or attention it could be up to twenty-five minutes before a person returns to their original task. According to Dr Gloria Mark, whom CNN interviewed, that return period to work after distraction leads to stress and anxiety, she has coined this the switch cost, and is without a shadow of a doubt the most dangerous part of poor attention spans, with such stress and anxieties contributing to decreasing standard of mental health in both home and work lives.  

The issue of technology and attention has become such an issue in day to day life that many school districts in the United States are turning to a company called Yondr who manufacture pouches that students are made put their phones in for the school day, and are only opened using a magnet at the end of the school day by their teacher, this is the same type of pouch that the Irish government has set aside €9 million euro in funding for schools to purchase these pouches for an approximate cost of €20 per unit. The aim of these pouches is to take away access to devices and therefore increase attention in school, as noted by several Ohio school districts to date as noted in a local publication YSNEWS.com. YSNEWS journalist Lauren Shows discusses the open and compassionate culture fostered by the no phone policy in schools. While here in Ireland teachers and their unions have lambasted the government simply saying there are more pressing issues in the school system, and a counter argument people have against the introduction of these pouches is the inevitability of students putting a dodgy phone or a ‘burner' phone in the pouch while still having their own phone on them everyday. Thus negating the whole system. It speaks to the addiction that our phones and therefore our addiction to media and access has become. 

With the studies all pointing the finger of blame at our devices and access to information, not unlike what our mothers did when we were young, it seems obvious to decrease screen time and increase time with others in person and outside is beneficial. That, however, is easier said than done. Our lives over the last decade have come to revolve around the one hundred and twenty-eight gigabytes in our pockets. The inclusion of Covid-19 into the mix and the promotion of remote working have only added fuel to the all-consuming fire which is our device usage. As this fire burns through every generation from Gen X with their professional careers, to Facebook posts with Millennials, to Gen Z who were the first to have phones from young teens and now Gen Alpha who have been raised watching Cocomelon and recreating TikTok dances. The damage appears to be irreversible, and it feels like maybe it is just time to give up and accept that our own children won’t be able to function with constant stimulation.  

While rather a depressing note to end on, it is important that issues like this, issues regarding the mind, are taken seriously. Not simply because mental health is important but because this is only the liminal period of human decline as we become less and less usefull as individuals and become ever more uniformed cogs in a system designed for a very few to live like kings and queens.