The digital world and the loss of our focus

What do you do when you have a few minutes with nothing to do? If you’re like most of the world, your tendency is to pull out your phone and scroll. It might be news, or social media, or email, but we have mainly loss the ability to just ‘be’. We need to fill the space.

The board behind Netflix knows this all too well. They discovered that their users have been watching shorter and simpler things rather than shows with more complex storylines. If a show continues for a while with no car chases or explosions, people stop watching and move to something else. Or they start scrolling on their phones instead of paying attention to the movie or TV show. Netflix asked their writers and directors to make content that is constantly engaging and to repeat key plot points often, assuming that most viewers have their attention divided between the TV and their phones.

Does that horrify you? I am guilty of this too, so I am not pointing the finger at everyone else! We cannot even concentrate on a movie if things are not repeated often and explained to death. All of this distraction is changing our minds and ruining our focus.

What do we lose when we move to our phones and scrolling so quickly, whatever is happening around us? Let me give you a few possibilities:

(a) We lose our abilities in human relationships. Many teenagers don’t learn skills around conversation due to lack of practice, and others lose confidence in these skills they once had. When so much of life is online and in highly entertaining small bites, we can lose the ability to listen well and talk well.
(b) We lose the ability to focus on anything complex. So many people no longer read books with their longer concentration requirements. This will impact the workplace increasingly as people don’t have the perseverance to deal with harder, complex problems.
(c) We fail to be good spouses or parents or friends. It is sad to see so many people in coffee shops seated across from one another, both scrolling on their phones. It’s not much of a connection. Likewise, we can not pay attention to our spouses, scrolling and half-listening. And for what? Some light entertainment?

What can we do to fight this constant temptation towards the simpler and unfocussed life? Here are some thoughts:

(1) You can use blockers to stop you using your phone or social media for a certain time period. There are many products in this area, some of which I personally use. It means you cannot scroll or waste time while you need to be focussed on something else.
(2) Pray! Spent some extended time praying. One thing that distraction does is that it means we struggle to pray for any length of time. Even five minutes at a time would be a big improvement for many Christians.
(3) You can try to live without your phone, even for a short time. Could you walk to the shops or around the block and not have your phone? Would that make you too anxious? Maybe you have a problem. Try for short periods first; you don’t need your phone constantly.
(4) Read a book! Books, even simple ones, make you focus on an extended argument or storyline. Read a novel and don’t pick up your phone for an hour. You’ll probably enjoy it more too.
(5) Watch a movie without looking at your phone. Enjoy the character building, the storyline, the setting. Teach your mind to focus on one thing at a time and, as they say, ‘live in the moment’.
(6) Find a hobby that is offline. There is an increase in people doing knitting or crochet. Some enjoy crosswords or gardening. I like to play golf, making me get outside and away from my phone for a while, focussing on something else.

So much is fighting to destroy your focus and attention. Fight back.