The impact of modern technology on the ability to concentrate



Recently, on one of the local yellowish Internet portals, a loud headline caught the eye - "What technology does to a person, the ability to concentrate attention has become less than that of a goldfish!". Moreover, the article referred to some recently published study by Microsoft. True, there was no direct reference to this study, but despite the source being yellow, I wondered if such a study was really conducted, and if so, what was its real purpose and result, in its original form, and not in the interpretation of the journalists.

After some time spent searching, such a study really showed up. It really mentioned goldfish and their ability to concentrate. True, as it turned out, this study was conducted mainly with the aim of increasing the effectiveness of advertising strategies, but even so, it contains some very interesting points that deserve attention, regardless of the original purpose of the study. The study, which will be discussed, was conducted at the end of 2014, the beginning of 2015, by the Canadian division of Microsoft. According to the researchers themselves, it does not pretend to be one hundred percent scientific accuracy, but, nevertheless, a number of interesting patterns were revealed in its course. The study used data obtained in various ways (including by fixing the activity of the brain by EEG methods) from a sample of 2000 Canadians. So, if this topic interests you, welcome to cut

Let's start with what actually attracted my attention to this topic - goldfish. Oddly enough, but the loud headline was not an ordinary journalistic trick. In the study, this comparison is indeed present. According to the data presented, the average time that a person concentrates on something was 8 seconds in 2013, while the same indicator for a goldfish is 9 seconds. Moreover, in 2000, when the degree of technology development was lower, the average person was around 12 seconds. Thus, indeed, it turns out that the ability of a modern person to concentrate is lower than that of a goldfish, well, at least in terms of duration. True, if you are not content with such an introductory and delve into the report, it turns out that everything is far from so bad,

The study uses a model for assessing attention divided into three main categories:
- sustained attention, which is responsible for a long focus on repetitive actions;
- selective attention to avoid distractions, in other words, information filtering;
- switching attention, responsible for effectively switching between tasks requiring the use of different types of perception.

Each of these subtypes was investigated separately.

According to research on sustained attention, the following points emerged. Respondents experienced problems with concentration of attention, which in turn had a significant impact on work / study, this was especially pronounced in people who often and often use various modern information technologies in everyday life. So, 44% of respondents admitted that they have to make significant efforts to concentrate on their tasks, while this answer had a noticeably higher frequency among some subgroups of respondents than the average for the entire sample:

- 68% early to use modern technology ;
- 67% of active users of social networks;
- 67% of people aged 18-24 years;
- 57% actively using simultaneously multiple devices / sources of information at one time;
- 55% of active consumers of various media content.

45% of all respondents said that they are often distracted from what they are doing, due to extraneous thoughts, the layout of the previously mentioned subgroups is as follows:

- 66% early to use modern technological achievements;
- 65% of active users of social networks;
- 61% of people aged 18-24 years;
- 60% actively using simultaneously multiple devices / sources of information at one time;
- 55% of active consumers of various media content.

And finally, 37% do not, by their own admission, use their time in the way that should be done, and because of this they have to work overtime. The frequency distribution of such a response among the subgroups falling out of the average response frequency in the sample:

- 62% early to use modern technological advances;
- 62% of active users of social networks;
- 71% of people aged 18-24 years;
- 51% actively using simultaneously multiple devices / sources of information at one time;
- 48% of active consumers of various media content.

The main factors that influence sustainable attention were media consumption, the use of social networks, the simultaneous use of several devices, and involvement in technology (the age at which the use of modern technology was started). Thus, the proportion of people with a high level of sustained attention ranged from 36% among those who use social services to 23% among those who used them with high intensity. A similar picture is for regular Internet browsing - 39% among those who use little Internet sites, up to 27% among those who devote a significant part of their time to this.

The age and gender of the respondents did not have a significant effect, the relative number of people of different age groups with a high level of sustained attention did not differ significantly - from 31% among the age group 18-34 to 35% among people over 55.

On the other hand, active users of technology, despite a decrease in the duration of sustained attention, showed higher activity and intensity of attention in studies of brain activity over short periods of time, that is, they simply absorbed more information in a shorter time. It was also noted that technically more advanced respondents showed better digestibility of data obtained both from interactive sources (Internet sites) and from passive ones (television). Thus, it can be said that shortening the attention period is not always so scary, and the fact that the average time of a person’s attention span on something is shorter than that of a goldfish does not mean anything without evaluating other factors.

Assessment of selective attention, or filtering excess, in the study is not reflected in such detail. This is primarily due to the fact that, in general, the researchers did not reveal any strong correlations between various factors and this type of attention. The only thing that significantly affected the filtering ability of the excess was the frequent simultaneous use of several devices / sources of information at one time. That is, people who are addicted to multitasking should be careful when they need to isolate something important from the flow of information / tasks. It is even possible that in cases when you need increased attention to detail, abandon the habit of covering everything at once.

As for the shifting attention, the situation here is generally similar to the previous one. One of the main factors is also multitasking, only already working with a plus sign. So, for example, among people who use this method a little, the share of respondents with high indicators of the ability to switch attention was 27%, while among those who actively used multitasking, there were already 37%. The significance of other factors is not so great, but in the process an interesting pattern was noticed regarding active users of social networks. This lesson also increased the ability of respondents to switch attention and assimilate information, but upon reaching a certain threshold it sharply worsened the performance of respondents.

On the one hand, the study showed that often the influence on human development, its behavior, which we tend to ascribe to certain external factors and technologies, is exaggerated. On the other hand, it demonstrates that such an influence does exist and it is not worth brushing it off, it is simply that this influence often turns out to be more precise and concentrated somewhat not where it was supposed, and therefore not always noticeable before certain situations arise. That is, to use technological advances that are firmly entrenched in our lives, and which we simply take for granted and an integral part of this life, in some cases we need to look at the possible, but not always obvious, consequences, adjusting our behavior and methods of use in depending on the desired results.

A full report of this study (in English) is available for download here .

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