How to recover your shrinking attention span

"Outside influences, he said, were the greatest difficulty that the human mind has to contend with. Gernsback's isolator device part diving suit, part monastic cell did help him to work, he said, but it came with a risk of suffocation. He later installed an air supply."

"Concerns that sustained thought is under assault have become even more acute in the digital era. Smartphones buzz, Internet tabs multiply and television episodes carry regular reminders to help people keep track of the plot. Surveys suggest that we feel less able to concentrate, teachers report distracted students and headlines declare that our attention spans are shrinking."

"Research across psychology and neuroscience, however, has built up a more nuanced picture of what is happening to our attention spans. The results suggest that people do flit from one task to another more frequently than they did in previous decades, and that this switching is often detrimental to performance. But there is little evidence that the brain's fundamental ability to concentrate has been impaired."

"This suggests that if we can shut down the distractions of our environment, it is possible to recover focus. I think there's a huge disconnect between what we feel like is happening and what is actually happening, says Monica Rosenberg, a psychologist at the University of Chicago in Illinois."

Hugo Gernsback proposed an isolating wooden helmet to prevent outside influences from disrupting thought, later adding an air supply to reduce suffocation risk. Modern life adds frequent digital and media prompts, including smartphone notifications, multiple internet tabs, and television reminders, alongside reports from surveys, teachers, and headlines about shrinking attention spans. Research from psychology and neuroscience indicates people switch tasks more often than in earlier decades, and this switching is often detrimental to performance. Little evidence shows the brain’s fundamental ability to concentrate has been impaired. This implies that reducing environmental distractions can help people recover focus.

Read at www.nature.com