Teachers have continuously mentioned that their teenage students tend to have short attention spans and the problem has worsened over time. This could be from multiple factors, such as electronics, school time or even increasing stress factors.
Short attention spans cause students to feel heavily distracted, which can lead to procrastination or lack of motivation to get needed work done.
“When I’m trying to work or focus on something for school, I can’t, which causes me to not do something I need done. For example, when I’m reading a book, I can’t focus on what’s going on in the book no matter how many times I reread,” said junior Kaitlin Villano.
It has been proven in a study conducted by Dr, Gloria Mark that in eight years, attention spans went from two and a half minutes to a minute and fifteen seconds. It has also been said that less sleep can cause a shorter attention span, which may explain why many students who don’t get their needed sleep might not be able to focus in class well enough to absorb information.
Taking breaks in between work can help prevent burnout, allowing students more energy and a higher attention capacity. It also allows the human brain to take in what has been learned without getting too overwhelmed, helping to prevent mental fatigue.
Junior Leora Furman said, “Yes, I think I have a short attention span. This is most likely caused by TikTok and other apps that provide quick, short, straight to the point type videos.”
Social media is a very significant factor when considering the reasons for short attention spans. Social media apps tend to condition the brain to expect quick stimulation and dopamine from algorithms that are built to keep you scrolling. Overall, social media addiction reduces the ability of a person to keep focus on slower, less interesting tasks.
Short attention spans cause many issues in individuals’ lives and it’s not healthy to have a continuous cycle of it. If individuals apply taking breaks, less social media time, and motivation to accomplish something, short attention spans can be fixed.
