And What Can We Do About It?

By Jamie Bussin and David Nelson

Are you having trouble paying attention? Can you watch a movie or tv show without interruption? Can you read an article without skipping ahead? And no, that isn’t an invitation to do so now.

I’ve noticed that focusing my attention is taking much more effort than it used to. We subscribe to the Sunday New York Times, which is a wonderfully long dense read. It’s meant to be enjoyed in peace and quiet. But I find myself unable to get through articles without re-reading passages or jumping paragraphs. 

I wondered if there was any cause for concern. As a commercial litigator I had spent untold hours reading case law and legislation, all of which involved complicated concepts, with verbose writing. If I didn’t focus on what was written I would very likely make a mistake which would be crucial to the file I was working on. I had to be very adept at being focused. And I was.

I could excuse my lack of focus on age or lack of practice (literally and figuratively). But I was suspicious that something else was at play. I spoke about this with health and wellness researcher David Nelson on Episode #301 of The Tonic Talk Show/Podcast. This is a digest of that conversation.

Attention is your ability to notice what’s going on around you from a sensory perspective. Focus is when you block out everything else so that you can narrow your attention to something sustained in concentration..

As a starting point, research does support the fact that over time our attention spans have declined. Studies show that the average attention span reduced from 12 to 8 seconds from 2000 to 2015. That is a significant decline. 

 

What is causing the decline? There are numerous factors.

Information Overload: Simply put, there are more things to know. We are being overwhelmed with a massive volume of information.

Sources of Information: It isn’t just that there is a lot of information. There are so many different sources of information: our phones and our computers are the main culprits. And the information is varied. It might come in the form of news, research, entertainment or communications. And there are multiple formats, including legacy media, social media and telecommunications.

The Speed of Information: Once upon a time, not too long ago, if you wanted some specific information – the box score of a Blue Jays game, for example, you might have had to wait until the next day to read about it in the newspaper. If it was an out of town game in California, you might need to wait two days for the box score. Now you can find out all the statistics up to the moment, on an app on your phone. We’ve come to expect that our information is instantaneous.

The algorithms of social media represent the culmination of all these factors. It is voluminous, it is ever present and it is instantaneous. And we’re being trained to consume the information we receive in the quickest of bites. Video content can’t be more than 30 seconds in length, and as a creator, I should know. The result is what David calls “shallow thinking”. We can recite headlines and think that we understand the world, but our understanding isn’t deep.

 

What can we do about it? Unfortunately, we can’t simply change the nature of information. But according to David we can change how we act. Here are 4 ideas on what we can do for better attention:

Mindfulness and Meditation: Meditation has been shown to decrease amygdala tone in the brain. When you decrease tone in the limbic center (aka the emotional processing center of the brain) it increases the capacity in other parts of the brain to process information. All of this can be accomplished in as little as 20 minutes of meditation a day.

Being in Nature: Nature is an environment that causes sensory awe rather than sensory overload. Being in nature has a calming effect not only on your brain but your microbiome’s plasticity – both of which are connected through the gut-brain axis.

Exercise: Dr. John Ratey, a researcher out of Harvard has conducted many studies on the benefits of exercise on our brains. In one such study, kids who had exhibited poor attention spans and poor grades were required to exercise for 30 minutes immediately before taking a particularly difficult subject. Every student who participated in the study experienced increases in their grades.

Digital Detox: According to David there must be times within our days when we turn off our digital devices. He recommends doing so 90 minutes before sleep. The sensory overload (including exposure to blue light) hinders the restorative process of REM sleep. That deep sleep is what allows us to wake up feeling refreshed. 

Instead of late night doom-surfing online, pick a singular uninterrupted activity such as reading or having a conversation. 

PS: If you happen to be reading this article late at night, don’t fret. Just turn off your phone/laptop and go tell someone you love what you just learned!