But it’s not irreversible
Have you already checked TikTok three times since beginning to read this sentence?
If the answer is yes, then you are probably a tech addled teenager, as per a recent survey of over 3000 educators. This survey made grim, but predictable reading, with 72% of teachers reporting their students having increased difficulty in sustaining focus on complex topics and increased challenges in completing longer assignments (amongst other depressing observations which you can read about by clicking the link above). These educators overwhelmingly cited over-reliance and over use of tech as the causes for this development.
I can report that Clarendon was determined to read the article from start to finish, only to get distracted by a message on our sibling WhatsApp group. Let he without sin etc etc.
Clarendon also read a brilliant interview with Psychologist and Neuroscientist Professor Nilli Lavie of UCL. Luckily, she has some optimistic messaging, as well as a few crucial warnings, which we thought we would share:
- There is no causality here, or at least none that any studies have been able to prove. Screens, smart-phones and social media OF THEMSELVES do not cause lower attention spans. (This is a similar point to a criticism of Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation; there is no causality between smart phones and anxiety, there is compelling corollary evidence).
- However, before we get too relieved (and this newsletter wouldn’t want you ever feeling relieved), Lavie asserts that the attention habits of our teenagers are being eroded by tech. There are products that are designed to distract and most video platforms push shorter and shorter content. This is eroding attention habits, but attention spans – or attention capacities – are unchanged.
- There is good news here. The grey matter volume in the parts of our brains that control different areas of what we might refer to as attention – perceptual capacity or executive cognitive control – can be increased over time. There is a great study with London black cab drivers, showing that they have massive grey matter volume in the part of the brain used for spatial navigation.
- The bad news is the fact that the grey matter can decrease and we are currently in a race to the bottom in attention terms. Tech companies are pushing products that distract our teenagers and get them used to shorter and shorter content.
- Screens themselves hold our focus much less than the printed word.
- There has been strong research that shows essays written with the help of AI (even in the planning stage) are retained much less than essays written without any help from AI.
- There is a danger that we overreact to our teenagers lower attention spans and shorten lesson times and lower the complexity of tasks, but this just erodes the grey matter they need to building even further.
You have been warned.
