Students vs. Attention Spans

Attention span is defined as “the length of time for which a person is able to concentrate mentally on a particular activity” stated by the Oxford American Dictionary. Such a skill to focus is essential to our daily lives, especially for students who have to manage their many classwork. Unfortunately, many students are noticing a decrease in their attention span.

Junior Niamat Kudlagi speaks on how she has definitely noticed a change in students’ attention span. “We’re not as focused in class and often spend our time scrolling on social media.” She mentions how “short attention spans have impacted our brain, making it almost impossible to just sit still and do nothing since we need something stimulating every moment.” Kudlagi thinks that the change in attention span affects academic performance. Being aware of the negative effects decreasing attention span has, Kudlagi has been putting effort into fixing it. Some advice she has is to “try to do one thing at a time”. She encourages to “devote your mind to one thing and stop multitasking since your brain can’t actually multitask.”

In contrast, another junior Zuri Nguyen believes her attention span has not changed as much recently. “The only time I’ve noticed a big change was maybe when I was reading a boring book or something.” Interestingly, they state that they don’t spend much time on social media. “The only time I really use social media is to either communicate with my brother or watch YouTube.” When asked if she thought screen time correlates with attention span, she responded, “I think that just depends on the human being and their self-discipline.”

Teachers, who have a close eye on students, have been observing the change in attention span over the years. Band director Drake Van Roekel speaks on how students’ attention spans have changed especially since the rise of certain social media platforms.  “I’ve noticed that students (and adults) are becoming much more interested in instant gratification rather than delayed gratification as well.” In order to improve attention span he thinks “every student should find part of their day to spend without their phone. For me, I put my phone away almost every night about an hour before I go to bed and do not see it again until after I eat breakfast in the morning.”

The decreasing attention span is dangerous, and knowing students/staff are aware of it is a relief. Being aware and proactively taking action will help resolve this issue.

Graphic made by Miku Mizushima using Canva