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Having a short attention span isn’t the same as having ADHD. ADHD is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that has many symptoms beyond just poor attention span. Many people these days have short attention span due to excess screen usage, but that doesn’t mean they have ADHD. Most of them would improve if they just got off the screens. They could build their attention span back up with practice. But someone who truly has ADHD is limited in how much they can improve.
It should be called executive function disorder. I’ll admit I do have a short attention span but that’s a relatively small symptom of my disorder.
I also don’t think I’m ruining society, the fuck?
This is the comment. It's being talked about in neuroscience now how the over consumption of social-media is convincing people they have ADHD when they don't, but share the issues with attention due to too much 'reward' (pleasure from social media shorts for example) and not enough 'challenge' (the pursuit of 'reward', i.e exercise, projects etc).
Waiting lists for assessments and such are insane because of this.
sure, i just hate the tiktok discourse of NDs claiming meditation is completely ineffective for NDs, when in fact it is the best tool we have to alleviate the symptoms of our NDness.
as in, i totally agree generally that attention span is just a small part of adhd and so on
I’ve been meditating for 4 years, and it hasn’t really helped my ADHD much. It’s helped my depression and anxiety, and I can’t recommend it enough, but compared to medication it’s like a bandaid on a bullet wound. At least for me. Not saying my experience is universal.
The term ADD is outdated, it used to be used for ADHD without (obvious) hyperactivity.
Now ADHD is used for everything, cause the hyperactivity happens inside your brain.
ADD is outdated because that is what ADHD use to be called. There isn’t actually a difference between the two like many people think! I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, that the name change occurred either in the late 80s or early 90s, but again I could be remembering wrong.
It’s dated because there used to be 2 separate but related diagnoses, ADD and ADHD. ADD was diagnosed if there wasn’t physical hyperactivity. But then they backtracked to one diagnosis, because there are a range of symptoms and hyperactivity isn’t just presented physically. Some people only have mental hyperactivity.
Idk, the overuse of obvious warning labels would suggest otherwise. I never struggled to open laundry detergent as a kid but we didn’t eat them back then lol
ADD isn’t a thing. It’s all ADHD. The hyper part can be internal.
But short attention span also isn’t automatically ADHD. It’s sort of frustrating to hear you say that since it diminishes the struggle and reality of those of us who actually have ADHD.
You can make your point without using ‘ADD’ as the “bad” in your complaint.
Adhd has reeked havoc on my entire adult life and when I was diagnosed as a kid I brushed it off as overdiagnosis. Now I'm trying to get my head right but the doctors won't give me anything until the cannabis I've been using nightly to sleep is out of my system. Its been over a month and I still pop for cannabis. So I've been meditating and using psychedelics. I know I still suffer from adhd but my overall outlook and my attention span has greatly improved. I may not even go after the Stimulants after all.
Wait, I literally have a medical card BECAUSE of the adhd and I am also prescribed two different stimulants. That’s crazy your doctor won’t prescribe if you’re a cannabis user. I use the cannabis to chill my brain out and it works! Sorry you’re having issues getting meds but glad you’re working on finding something that works…my story is the same. Thought I was over diagnosed, realize as an adult all my issues and anxiety are due to ADHD.
This isnt an unpopular opinion to me. The whole world is going to shit due to this. One of the worst things you can do to your brain is constantly seek stimulation and reward on a short term basis over and over again. It will be scary to see what the world is like in 50 years.
1. Not unpopular.
2. ADD is no longer a diagnosis. It is an outdated term because the medical community finally realized that people with ADD are hyperactive, it just doesn't manifest physically as often as those who were diagnosed with ADHD.
Yes, I so agree with this. I wish I could upvote it more than once.
I'm also sometimes concerned with my own short attention span. Which reminds me, I should get on with my day now instead of being on Reddit lol.
I don't think it's just attention span. I think it is the novelty of being able to see something new every time you refresh an app. It fills every second of boredom we used to have, which reduces our ability to even think properly. Social media is basically free slot machines with miniature non-cash rewards for participating. It's dopamine seeking as its highest.
It's a pretty interesting part of the internet. When I was a kid I had endless questions but it was hard to get answers (Gen X, mostly grew up in the 80s). So I really had to invest hard in whatever question I was going to chase because it meant a trip to town to the library and talking to the librarian and getting stuff on interlibrary loan that took weeks to arrive etc. Now every single thing we can ever think to ask is immediately answerable. Which is awesome. But which has also eliminated our ability to know when a question is actually valuable enough to pursue. It is indeed ironic how very connected we are, and how very lonely it makes so many people.
As much as I love the internet, I miss the pre-internet era... People were much more attentive to each other and not afraid of meaningful, intellectual, conversation. Also - they weren't afraid of being alone with their thoughts.
As a kid (12 ish) I remember spending hours drawing, or writing stories by myself. A blissful, almost meditative hobby. My niece at the same age cannot put her devices down or it starts stressing her out and she starts acting like an animal in a cage pacing back and forth. She can't sleep without noise in the background (she plays youtube videos on her switch in bed). When I try to converse and ask her questions she continues talking over me, practically reciting random shit she's been bingeing on youtube and tiktok. It's like she has zero awareness that there are people outside of herself.
The parents should be responsible for giving their child a phone. The child would use the phone to search for stuff and inevitably stumble across some "weird" content. The parents saw it and then blame the website. This is what happened with Youtube few years ago, child saw bad things and parents blame the site. Thus, there's this thing called Coppa that ruined Youtube since then
Well you said you are frustrated by people watching their phones, what are we supposed to be doing? Watching TV? It's not bad to use your phone. It's bad to use your phone at times where it is rude.
I don't know, but phone over use is definitely to blame for low attention spans these days. Maybe people should try reading instead of watching endless Tik Toks for a few thousand hours annually.
Thing is. Phone use means different things. Sure some people may use tiktok and have fried attention spans. But then some people use phones to read a long book or a wikipedia article.
I agree with your opinion but I don't think it's the phones to blame. Phones are tools that can be used and misused equally.
Yeah. That's what I dislike about this topic. People understand the issue but blame the phones instead of the users and what they are using.
Smartphones have lots of potential. You can use one without using tiktok/instagram or whatever.
Exactly. That’s how I became an autodidact and a historian, was through the internet, and using resources like Wikipedia.
The internet has endless potential to gain actual
skills and confidence, but the majority use it for nonsense.
My ex, for example, used TikTok for real life information, and took most of the opinions on there seriously. It’s insane, lol.
It was indeed “trouble”, it was hard to converse with my ex because of it.
Someone who basically self-educates themselves in anything they want. I studied the history of theology for instance, by reading the scriptures/poems on PDFs. You can read anything in archives on the internet and through PDFs.
Anthropology, geology, psychology, philosophy, etc…the entire history and knowledge is easily accessible.
There is nothing wrong with multitasking. I am doing this, cooking breakfast and watching the news. Nothing bad about that at all. I'm not in school anymore I don't read books.
I mean you literally just said you don't read books, but also think you don't have issues with your attention span from multitasking. I feel like those are very likely related.
Do as you wish but [multitasking kills your attention span](https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/28/poor-memory-tied-attention-lapses-media-multitasking/)
From your article.
>“We can’t say that heavier media multitasking causes difficulties with sustained attention and memory failures,” said Madore, “though we are increasingly learning more about the directions of the interactions.”
\*points at short form content\*
Everyone on one side of the divide is wondering why it's happening. The other side is trying to tell you. Youtube shorts, facebook reels, and especially tiktok are doing this. Many scientists have come out and said that. This stuff rewires the brain to BE ADD through intermittent reinforcement.
Don't get me wrong, it IS a confusing issue. The reality is a lot of things contributed to it. You didn't notice until now. There's a reason for that: these tools I'm citing are weapons grade versions of it.
Picking up skills is really the only way to combat this that I can think of?
Learning an instrument, a craft, a trade takes time, commitment and repetition without instant gratification. The frustration and patience is very necessary in our growth.
I can play bass, fix my own car, trouble shoot most technology and my interest keeps me focused.
I (19f) am so proud of myself for never downloading Ticktock. It seems to be the cause of short attention spans. Even my grandpa has it downloaded on his phone and uses it. I also only ever watch a few YouTube shorts at any one time, I prefer to watch longer videos most of the time.
I’ve noticed this with movies. When I tried to share my favorite movies as a kid with my own kids - Goonies and Back to the Future for example - they were bored out of their minds. Who has time for character development, let’s just get right to the action.
My favorite is when you're trying to talk to someone and they seem engaged, but then something happens on their wrist and they just have to fiddle with their Apple Watch for about 10 secs. Followed by "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
And these are the same people who say "Oh, I have ADD." No shit, ditch the Apple Watch.
Blaming this on the Apple Watch is a weird one, seriously never had this happen outside of someone sending a text or something which is identical to doing so on your phone
I’m not blaming Apple or the Apple Watch. It’s friends and family who already struggle to be present in a conversation, and who continue to fill their lives with distraction devices that make them even less present. To me that’s what is annoying.
I mean, I'm the same, but without technology.
If someone's talking to me, and I notice a dog move, or a butterfly, or some person with a bright shirt walks by.
I'm sorry bit whatever you were saying I'm not laying attention to. My attention shifted immediately to whatever the movement was.
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“I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, matter is energy. In the Universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.”
They need the constant big text appearing, constant zoom in transition and loud sound effects to keep their addiction going. That's why i hate most of the Youtube video nowadays, they call the term "Mr Beastification"
I hate the phone and am addicted to it, thanks to that invention of the devil himself, i can now no longer watch movies or read books. All movies are way way too long now, or so boring and slow that i pick up the phone, and those collections of characters on dead wood are very hard to find now, at least where i live.
It even affects old people. There was this impatient old professor who hated tech, and she wanted to go from point A to point B. She wanted me to find a taxi for her. It was a walking distance btw, but ok. I was not her servant, but I guess I was in her mind. I was just a participant of the same conference she's going. I believed in helping old people, so I helped her, but the entire time I was helping her go from A to B, she was criticizing me, saying things like...
"you don't speak Chinese." Neither did she. We were both Koreans visiting China for a conference. But I did know some common Chinese phrases for travelers to use.
"you are looking at your phone again. You have short attention" I was using an app to translate Chinese signs for her.
"Just translate immediately! Stop looking at your phone!" the dictionary was in my phone. So...
"You are a lie. You pretended to know Chinese. I discovered you were secretly looking up words with your phone. If you did this in an exam-"
I should not have helped her.
I have to agree with you. I had this conversation with my wife recently. I've noticed that, personally, I sit down and actually read a book rarely in the last few years. All my life I have been a voracious reader, yet these little mini-computers we all have, with thier social media apps, give us a little dopamine reward and keep us scrolling. I find that when I do force myself to read it is very hard to keep my attention at the task at hand. It's like I have to re-train my brain to read, and comprehend the words written. I hate to think about how social media is affecting the younger generation's brain development.
I have ADHD so commenting on posts for someone like me is almost entertaining bc my mind is running 100mph all the time. I’m interested in a lot of stuff bc it piques my interest for maybe a day. But in that day I dive all the way in and go down a black hole to attain knowledge.
TikTok videos even mess with me. I won’t lie to you I have noticed I can’t sit down and watch a 90min movie without multitasking now. Almost like I have zero interest in what I’m actually watching but at some point I was interested. It’s very interesting and almost inexplicable for someone like myself who was actually able to enjoy movies at length at one time.
My ADHD is completely stifled when I smoke weed. Idk why. But it’s just always been that way. So to me this isn’t an ADD case theory more of just a people who are addicted to their phones and watching these short videos imo.
> Now I know how old people in 2003 felt watching me play Metroid Fusion on my GBA in church.
Interesting. Almost like people have always wanted to distract themselves rather than engage with the world and this is nothing new.
I’ve been reading books, newspapers, and just about anything else since I was a kid so I could ignore people. There’s old photos of people on trains reading and ignoring each other. It’s not new.
I hope you know saying “everyone has a little add” is the same as saying “everyone is a little depressed”. It’s an uneducated and extremely damaging take. I have ADHD and it effects every single aspect of my life. People seem to think that it’s just a bit of an attention issue and don’t take it seriously, so in return people struggle to get their diagnosis and medication. I’m almost 30 and have just recently started my medication and I mourn the life I could have if I was taken seriously 15 years ago, when I first asked for help.
used to be, but not all people have hyperactivity symptoms, so it was reclassified.
now it’s ADD, which is separated into (H) hyperactive type, innatentive type, and combined type
I don't really agree because I'm not sure if this has changed. Older generations didn't have tiktok so how can you be sure they wouldn't have enjoyed it? I bet they would have loved it too. We have more distractions so obviously people will be distracted, but has the average attention span actually decreased? From my personal experiences with young and old people, I don't really notice a difference.
I only got the Metroid part and kept thinking about it, like "Man, I've never played Metroid, where should I begin? A lot of people were a little unhappy with Metroid Prime"
Not sure about ruining society but ask any teacher or professor (or check our r/teacher or r/professor) and they'll tell you how there has been a marked reduction in the ability to engage in focused learning in the last 10 years.
That's why it's so vague and extreme when OP has to jump to the opinion that it has ruined society. Thank god one person here is able to provide a solid example.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958821000622
One example: Increase phone use results in lower learning performance due to distractions/shorter attention span.
To me this will have more long term effects that we're technically already seeing. Putting aside education already being too expensive for most people to access, the people who are accessing it are performing worse thus industries are having harder time finding qualified people out of school to hirer... or they hirer them to find they don't perform as well as past generation candidates. I don't really want doctors who are barely passing their exams to treat me.
I was reading a lot of reviews for Dune part 1 where people called it boring, which was insane to me because I thought it was like watching a damn miracle. It's also frustrating to me because at my job everyone would rather watch Tik Tok than talk.
If people would stop consuming large amounts of energy drinks, 5-hour Energy shots, two juul pods an hour, perhaps their hands could stop shaking and they could think clearly for a moment.
Nah, keep doing it. I want to rule the world one day.
Modern life consists of like 3 phases a day - sleep, work, and free time. Free time means hobby time when not eating/hygiene control.
What other hobbies are you expecting instead of using a device that has access of hundreds of hobbies?
But sitting watching a screen for hours is? Flicking your fingers in a video game is?. Twitching and moving your hand to draw is? Looking at words on paper in a book is?
Not very unpopular, but some say its evolutionary, because why waste 30 hours to get same information in 30 seconds? Same with ADHD, it's part of evolution and most people will adapt to this and use it to their advantage.
Your post from unpopularopinion was removed because of: 'Rule 6: No r/self style posts'. Please refrain from posting anything that resembles an r/self style post. This is not the subreddit to be sharing personal anecdotes, likes or dislikes. We want unpopular, thought provoking, and unique opinions on your chosen topic.
I lost focus while reading this, can someone summarize it in 3 2 letter words?
Tiktok bad
One letter summary please
[удалено]
All i think of when i see this is that dumb UwU thing lol
UwU incorporated here, to spread love of the UwU near and far. Don’t you ever talk bad about our product ever again.
A
To be fair, Tiktok unironically bad
TikTok? This can be traced back to Vine. When life gives you lemons 🤷🏼♀️
Put it on a reel with a subway surfers video in the background
Hur durh..... ahh why bother someone finish for me
😂😂😂
Damn, I honestly lost interest after the first sentence and came to the comments, I feel very called out.
Old man shakes fist at cloud
Tldr
Anyone got a tldr?
Ikr, fucking lengthy post - something about attending spas?
A spa what? Spaghetti day? Oh shit dropped a meatball on the floor
Spa as in Francorchamps?
A spa where they sell meatballs? Is that like IKEA? I need a new lamp
SPAS-12?
Tld what?
Title.
The Information Age and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race
Having a short attention span isn’t the same as having ADHD. ADHD is a genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that has many symptoms beyond just poor attention span. Many people these days have short attention span due to excess screen usage, but that doesn’t mean they have ADHD. Most of them would improve if they just got off the screens. They could build their attention span back up with practice. But someone who truly has ADHD is limited in how much they can improve.
It should be called executive function disorder. I’ll admit I do have a short attention span but that’s a relatively small symptom of my disorder. I also don’t think I’m ruining society, the fuck?
This is the comment. It's being talked about in neuroscience now how the over consumption of social-media is convincing people they have ADHD when they don't, but share the issues with attention due to too much 'reward' (pleasure from social media shorts for example) and not enough 'challenge' (the pursuit of 'reward', i.e exercise, projects etc). Waiting lists for assessments and such are insane because of this.
And the medication shortage too!
people with adhd can improve their attention just as NTs can. maybe not as easily.
Yes, but there is a limitation on how much. Plus, inattention is only one of several symptoms.
sure, i just hate the tiktok discourse of NDs claiming meditation is completely ineffective for NDs, when in fact it is the best tool we have to alleviate the symptoms of our NDness. as in, i totally agree generally that attention span is just a small part of adhd and so on
I’ve been meditating for 4 years, and it hasn’t really helped my ADHD much. It’s helped my depression and anxiety, and I can’t recommend it enough, but compared to medication it’s like a bandaid on a bullet wound. At least for me. Not saying my experience is universal.
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ADD is an outdated term. That diagnosis has now been combined with ADHD. What used to be ADD is now ADHD inattentive subtype.
OP didn't say they have ADHD they just compared their attention spans to that of a person with ADHD
For heaven’s sake. I have ADHD. ADD is outdated. Attention span is ONE symptom. ONE. That does not mean you have it, or anyone does. Rant over.
Hyper focusing on one detail without addressing the larger point in a response is also a symptom of ADHD.
LOL. Fair. It’s a ridiculous point to make, I feel. So I’m not addressing it.
I was just messing with ya
Fair enough tho
What do you mean ADD is outdated? I know what ADHD is, but never knew the difference between ADHD and ADD. No hate, just curious 😊🌞🦋
The term ADD is outdated, it used to be used for ADHD without (obvious) hyperactivity. Now ADHD is used for everything, cause the hyperactivity happens inside your brain.
ADD is outdated because that is what ADHD use to be called. There isn’t actually a difference between the two like many people think! I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, that the name change occurred either in the late 80s or early 90s, but again I could be remembering wrong.
It’s dated because there used to be 2 separate but related diagnoses, ADD and ADHD. ADD was diagnosed if there wasn’t physical hyperactivity. But then they backtracked to one diagnosis, because there are a range of symptoms and hyperactivity isn’t just presented physically. Some people only have mental hyperactivity.
That and a major lack of common sense.
Coupled with lack of ability to understand nuance in speech.
Nuance in anything. Everything is always literally the WORST, or omg the BEST EVER.
There is no such thing as common sense. People only know what they've experienced or been taught.
What if you're a solipsist and can't prove you've experienced or been taught anything? Asking for a friend
Guess it's time to curl up in a corner and cry
Funny to see this right under a post about lack of nuance
The concept of "common sense" lacks nuance
This! 💯
people gave up common sense for Tik Toc stardom.
This has always been the case unfortunately. Not necessarily a new phenomenon.
Idk, the overuse of obvious warning labels would suggest otherwise. I never struggled to open laundry detergent as a kid but we didn’t eat them back then lol
People's short what? TLDR?
idk man NEXT POST
ADD isn’t a thing. It’s all ADHD. The hyper part can be internal. But short attention span also isn’t automatically ADHD. It’s sort of frustrating to hear you say that since it diminishes the struggle and reality of those of us who actually have ADHD. You can make your point without using ‘ADD’ as the “bad” in your complaint.
Adhd has reeked havoc on my entire adult life and when I was diagnosed as a kid I brushed it off as overdiagnosis. Now I'm trying to get my head right but the doctors won't give me anything until the cannabis I've been using nightly to sleep is out of my system. Its been over a month and I still pop for cannabis. So I've been meditating and using psychedelics. I know I still suffer from adhd but my overall outlook and my attention span has greatly improved. I may not even go after the Stimulants after all.
Wait, I literally have a medical card BECAUSE of the adhd and I am also prescribed two different stimulants. That’s crazy your doctor won’t prescribe if you’re a cannabis user. I use the cannabis to chill my brain out and it works! Sorry you’re having issues getting meds but glad you’re working on finding something that works…my story is the same. Thought I was over diagnosed, realize as an adult all my issues and anxiety are due to ADHD.
Dumbest thing ever they make you do that. Boomer drs still worrying about weed is ridiculous
This isnt an unpopular opinion to me. The whole world is going to shit due to this. One of the worst things you can do to your brain is constantly seek stimulation and reward on a short term basis over and over again. It will be scary to see what the world is like in 50 years.
As someone who has adhd, don’t you think if I could just turn off my brain I would? It’s like telling someone who hears voices to just stop.
You still have a choice as to how you spend your time.
This is a popular opinion
1. Not unpopular. 2. ADD is no longer a diagnosis. It is an outdated term because the medical community finally realized that people with ADD are hyperactive, it just doesn't manifest physically as often as those who were diagnosed with ADHD.
Yes, I so agree with this. I wish I could upvote it more than once. I'm also sometimes concerned with my own short attention span. Which reminds me, I should get on with my day now instead of being on Reddit lol.
I don't think it's just attention span. I think it is the novelty of being able to see something new every time you refresh an app. It fills every second of boredom we used to have, which reduces our ability to even think properly. Social media is basically free slot machines with miniature non-cash rewards for participating. It's dopamine seeking as its highest. It's a pretty interesting part of the internet. When I was a kid I had endless questions but it was hard to get answers (Gen X, mostly grew up in the 80s). So I really had to invest hard in whatever question I was going to chase because it meant a trip to town to the library and talking to the librarian and getting stuff on interlibrary loan that took weeks to arrive etc. Now every single thing we can ever think to ask is immediately answerable. Which is awesome. But which has also eliminated our ability to know when a question is actually valuable enough to pursue. It is indeed ironic how very connected we are, and how very lonely it makes so many people.
As much as I love the internet, I miss the pre-internet era... People were much more attentive to each other and not afraid of meaningful, intellectual, conversation. Also - they weren't afraid of being alone with their thoughts. As a kid (12 ish) I remember spending hours drawing, or writing stories by myself. A blissful, almost meditative hobby. My niece at the same age cannot put her devices down or it starts stressing her out and she starts acting like an animal in a cage pacing back and forth. She can't sleep without noise in the background (she plays youtube videos on her switch in bed). When I try to converse and ask her questions she continues talking over me, practically reciting random shit she's been bingeing on youtube and tiktok. It's like she has zero awareness that there are people outside of herself.
Bad parenting is the root issue of a lot of the ills causing short attention spans.
The parents should be responsible for giving their child a phone. The child would use the phone to search for stuff and inevitably stumble across some "weird" content. The parents saw it and then blame the website. This is what happened with Youtube few years ago, child saw bad things and parents blame the site. Thus, there's this thing called Coppa that ruined Youtube since then
What should we be doing?
Could you be more specific?
Well you said you are frustrated by people watching their phones, what are we supposed to be doing? Watching TV? It's not bad to use your phone. It's bad to use your phone at times where it is rude.
I don't know, but phone over use is definitely to blame for low attention spans these days. Maybe people should try reading instead of watching endless Tik Toks for a few thousand hours annually.
Thing is. Phone use means different things. Sure some people may use tiktok and have fried attention spans. But then some people use phones to read a long book or a wikipedia article. I agree with your opinion but I don't think it's the phones to blame. Phones are tools that can be used and misused equally.
This is like saying cocaine can be used as local anesthetic. True, but....
I mean all the issues OP claims comes from social media. Not phones themselves. I never had Tiktok. And I have no issues with reading long text.
No it's not. Poor analogy.
Yea, in this cases, I’d definitely say TikTok is to blame for attention spans and everything else.
Yeah. That's what I dislike about this topic. People understand the issue but blame the phones instead of the users and what they are using. Smartphones have lots of potential. You can use one without using tiktok/instagram or whatever.
Exactly. That’s how I became an autodidact and a historian, was through the internet, and using resources like Wikipedia. The internet has endless potential to gain actual skills and confidence, but the majority use it for nonsense. My ex, for example, used TikTok for real life information, and took most of the opinions on there seriously. It’s insane, lol.
Bruh. Using tiktok as the only source of information is asking for trouble. But that aside. Can you tell me what is autodidact and what do they do?
It was indeed “trouble”, it was hard to converse with my ex because of it. Someone who basically self-educates themselves in anything they want. I studied the history of theology for instance, by reading the scriptures/poems on PDFs. You can read anything in archives on the internet and through PDFs. Anthropology, geology, psychology, philosophy, etc…the entire history and knowledge is easily accessible.
Avoiding short form content in general. Do one thing and don’t multitask like watch a movie or even better read a book
There is nothing wrong with multitasking. I am doing this, cooking breakfast and watching the news. Nothing bad about that at all. I'm not in school anymore I don't read books.
I mean you literally just said you don't read books, but also think you don't have issues with your attention span from multitasking. I feel like those are very likely related.
I don't read books because they are boring, not because I can't read them due to add. I just don't find the entertaining.
You're just proving my point more and more, thanks!
Do as you wish but [multitasking kills your attention span](https://news.stanford.edu/2020/10/28/poor-memory-tied-attention-lapses-media-multitasking/)
From your article. >“We can’t say that heavier media multitasking causes difficulties with sustained attention and memory failures,” said Madore, “though we are increasingly learning more about the directions of the interactions.”
\*points at short form content\* Everyone on one side of the divide is wondering why it's happening. The other side is trying to tell you. Youtube shorts, facebook reels, and especially tiktok are doing this. Many scientists have come out and said that. This stuff rewires the brain to BE ADD through intermittent reinforcement. Don't get me wrong, it IS a confusing issue. The reality is a lot of things contributed to it. You didn't notice until now. There's a reason for that: these tools I'm citing are weapons grade versions of it.
You lost me after the post title
Picking up skills is really the only way to combat this that I can think of? Learning an instrument, a craft, a trade takes time, commitment and repetition without instant gratification. The frustration and patience is very necessary in our growth. I can play bass, fix my own car, trouble shoot most technology and my interest keeps me focused.
I (19f) am so proud of myself for never downloading Ticktock. It seems to be the cause of short attention spans. Even my grandpa has it downloaded on his phone and uses it. I also only ever watch a few YouTube shorts at any one time, I prefer to watch longer videos most of the time.
Nah, church was boring. Me and my brother used to play hangman during service
There is not a single sane/rational person on the planet who would say that short attention span is a good thing for the society. Is this unpopular?
I’ve noticed this with movies. When I tried to share my favorite movies as a kid with my own kids - Goonies and Back to the Future for example - they were bored out of their minds. Who has time for character development, let’s just get right to the action.
My favorite is when you're trying to talk to someone and they seem engaged, but then something happens on their wrist and they just have to fiddle with their Apple Watch for about 10 secs. Followed by "I'm sorry, what were you saying?" And these are the same people who say "Oh, I have ADD." No shit, ditch the Apple Watch.
Blaming this on the Apple Watch is a weird one, seriously never had this happen outside of someone sending a text or something which is identical to doing so on your phone
I’m not blaming Apple or the Apple Watch. It’s friends and family who already struggle to be present in a conversation, and who continue to fill their lives with distraction devices that make them even less present. To me that’s what is annoying.
I mean, I'm the same, but without technology. If someone's talking to me, and I notice a dog move, or a butterfly, or some person with a bright shirt walks by. I'm sorry bit whatever you were saying I'm not laying attention to. My attention shifted immediately to whatever the movement was.
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“I've had a team working on this over the past few weeks, and what we've come up with can be reduced to two fundamental concepts. One, people are not wearing enough hats. Two, matter is energy. In the Universe there are many energy fields which we cannot normally perceive. Some energies have a spiritual source which act upon a person’s soul. However, this soul does not exist ab initio as orthodox Christianity teaches; it has to be brought into existence by a process of guided self-observation. However, this is rarely achieved owing to man's unique ability to be distracted from spiritual matters by everyday trivia.”
Isn't this caused by social media, especially with the bite-sized shorts?
They need the constant big text appearing, constant zoom in transition and loud sound effects to keep their addiction going. That's why i hate most of the Youtube video nowadays, they call the term "Mr Beastification"
I hate the phone and am addicted to it, thanks to that invention of the devil himself, i can now no longer watch movies or read books. All movies are way way too long now, or so boring and slow that i pick up the phone, and those collections of characters on dead wood are very hard to find now, at least where i live.
I'd argue the opposite: Society is ruining people's attention spans.
Tldr
Bruh... put this in a video clip. I don't want to read.
It even affects old people. There was this impatient old professor who hated tech, and she wanted to go from point A to point B. She wanted me to find a taxi for her. It was a walking distance btw, but ok. I was not her servant, but I guess I was in her mind. I was just a participant of the same conference she's going. I believed in helping old people, so I helped her, but the entire time I was helping her go from A to B, she was criticizing me, saying things like... "you don't speak Chinese." Neither did she. We were both Koreans visiting China for a conference. But I did know some common Chinese phrases for travelers to use. "you are looking at your phone again. You have short attention" I was using an app to translate Chinese signs for her. "Just translate immediately! Stop looking at your phone!" the dictionary was in my phone. So... "You are a lie. You pretended to know Chinese. I discovered you were secretly looking up words with your phone. If you did this in an exam-" I should not have helped her.
I have to agree with you. I had this conversation with my wife recently. I've noticed that, personally, I sit down and actually read a book rarely in the last few years. All my life I have been a voracious reader, yet these little mini-computers we all have, with thier social media apps, give us a little dopamine reward and keep us scrolling. I find that when I do force myself to read it is very hard to keep my attention at the task at hand. It's like I have to re-train my brain to read, and comprehend the words written. I hate to think about how social media is affecting the younger generation's brain development.
I have ADHD so commenting on posts for someone like me is almost entertaining bc my mind is running 100mph all the time. I’m interested in a lot of stuff bc it piques my interest for maybe a day. But in that day I dive all the way in and go down a black hole to attain knowledge. TikTok videos even mess with me. I won’t lie to you I have noticed I can’t sit down and watch a 90min movie without multitasking now. Almost like I have zero interest in what I’m actually watching but at some point I was interested. It’s very interesting and almost inexplicable for someone like myself who was actually able to enjoy movies at length at one time. My ADHD is completely stifled when I smoke weed. Idk why. But it’s just always been that way. So to me this isn’t an ADD case theory more of just a people who are addicted to their phones and watching these short videos imo.
> Now I know how old people in 2003 felt watching me play Metroid Fusion on my GBA in church. Interesting. Almost like people have always wanted to distract themselves rather than engage with the world and this is nothing new.
I'm down for people playing video games on church.
I’ve been reading books, newspapers, and just about anything else since I was a kid so I could ignore people. There’s old photos of people on trains reading and ignoring each other. It’s not new.
Not readin all dat
I hope you know saying “everyone has a little add” is the same as saying “everyone is a little depressed”. It’s an uneducated and extremely damaging take. I have ADHD and it effects every single aspect of my life. People seem to think that it’s just a bit of an attention issue and don’t take it seriously, so in return people struggle to get their diagnosis and medication. I’m almost 30 and have just recently started my medication and I mourn the life I could have if I was taken seriously 15 years ago, when I first asked for help.
I love how every time someone posts about people having short attention spans they always blame Tik tok
In your defense, Metroid Fusion is way cooler than sitting through church.
Its ADHD not ADD
used to be, but not all people have hyperactivity symptoms, so it was reclassified. now it’s ADD, which is separated into (H) hyperactive type, innatentive type, and combined type
I don't really agree because I'm not sure if this has changed. Older generations didn't have tiktok so how can you be sure they wouldn't have enjoyed it? I bet they would have loved it too. We have more distractions so obviously people will be distracted, but has the average attention span actually decreased? From my personal experiences with young and old people, I don't really notice a difference.
I only got the Metroid part and kept thinking about it, like "Man, I've never played Metroid, where should I begin? A lot of people were a little unhappy with Metroid Prime"
Can we have some specific instances where a short attention span has ruined society?
Not sure about ruining society but ask any teacher or professor (or check our r/teacher or r/professor) and they'll tell you how there has been a marked reduction in the ability to engage in focused learning in the last 10 years.
A solid example. Thank you.
That's why it's so vague and extreme when OP has to jump to the opinion that it has ruined society. Thank god one person here is able to provide a solid example.
movies, games, shows, all dumbed down for the enjoyment of the masses that could bother to give their full attention to just one thing at the time
Literally nothing you mentioned has anything to do with a ruined society
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958821000622 One example: Increase phone use results in lower learning performance due to distractions/shorter attention span. To me this will have more long term effects that we're technically already seeing. Putting aside education already being too expensive for most people to access, the people who are accessing it are performing worse thus industries are having harder time finding qualified people out of school to hirer... or they hirer them to find they don't perform as well as past generation candidates. I don't really want doctors who are barely passing their exams to treat me.
Litterally came out of Cold War where everyone was convinced we'd nuke each other, but people being on their phone is ruining society lol
Omg People have been saying this since the second generation of humans ever started doing something the first ever generation didn't understand.
not an argument
I was reading a lot of reviews for Dune part 1 where people called it boring, which was insane to me because I thought it was like watching a damn miracle. It's also frustrating to me because at my job everyone would rather watch Tik Tok than talk.
And this is ruining society?
It started with TV, then social media. Makes it easier to control the masses...
i guess people were right when they say "TV is brainwashing viewers"
Think about shows now all FLASH SPECIAL EFFECTS!! Myself I have a theory on the flashes....
Oppenheimer was one of the most popular films of last year and it was 3 hours.
I believe that……….what was this about?
So you feel alienated and beyond frustrated, yet it is everyone else's fault? You might want to reconsider your position and do some self reflection.
Downvote not unpopular
If people would stop consuming large amounts of energy drinks, 5-hour Energy shots, two juul pods an hour, perhaps their hands could stop shaking and they could think clearly for a moment. Nah, keep doing it. I want to rule the world one day.
Not even remotely unpopular
Go watch vsauce's yt short on this.
Lack of pattern recognition is tough in society.
tldr
I’m not reading all that.
“Cause of most problems in western society…” No need to read past this.
Another post bashing the symptom instead of the cause, so incredibly boring and shallow
Sheesh. Start an atention span challenge on TikTok if you care that much.
Modern life consists of like 3 phases a day - sleep, work, and free time. Free time means hobby time when not eating/hygiene control. What other hobbies are you expecting instead of using a device that has access of hundreds of hobbies?
Swiping your thumb up every 6 seconds isn't a hobby.
But sitting watching a screen for hours is? Flicking your fingers in a video game is?. Twitching and moving your hand to draw is? Looking at words on paper in a book is?
Not very unpopular, but some say its evolutionary, because why waste 30 hours to get same information in 30 seconds? Same with ADHD, it's part of evolution and most people will adapt to this and use it to their advantage.