Can you finish this article without checking your phone?

I do not know about you, but since the start of this term, I have come to the terrifying realisation that I can no longer pay attention to anything for more than 30 seconds. The long summer break and endless hours I have spent bed rotting has destroyed my ability to get past the first page of my readings without checking my phone. 

Whenever I sit down in the ASS, open my laptop, and attempt to lock in to prepare for my seminar, I find myself susceptible to even the most minor distractions. I have even noticed the effects that endless doomscrolling has had on my brain outside of my uni work. I am unable to focus on one singular daily task or even one topic in a conversation with my friends.

Apparently, I am not alone. Many other students I have spoken to have been facing similar issues; I find my friends and I are incapable of sitting still or finishing a complete thought without veering off on an irrelevant tangent. One minute we are discussing what to make for dinner and somehow we end up debating whether walking up St Michael’s Hill or Park Street is harder. As much as I love the chaos of this, something does not feel quite right.

It is comforting to know that most of Bristol seems to be suffering from the same attention deficit issues as me.  But when no one can sit through a lecture without checking their notifications, perhaps we should start trying to make a change. The teacher’s union NASUWT has told MP’s that it can take up to 20 minutes to refocus after checking a notification. That is most of the seminar gone! No wonder we all leave the lecture halls feeling as though we have learnt nothing. This definitely demands attention. Bristol student Annie has said that she ‘Struggles to read a page without reaching for her phone’.  Maybe it is time to delete TikTok after all. 

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Eliminating doomscrolling is an easy solution to this collective problem. As comforting as a scroll during your break from work feels, it is the cause of damage to your concentration levels. Everyone is constantly consuming content, from watching TikTok in bed, to Spotify when walking and Netflix when having a meal, our brains have no time to stop. Even when we go on a trip to the toilet our phone has to come with us. We have engineered boredom out of existence, giving ourselves no time to stop and really think.

Our phones have us hooked and it is already apparent just how much it affects our behaviour.  A 2019 King’s College London study found nearly a quarter of children and young people use their phones in a way consistent with a behavioural addiction. The report also proves that heavy screen attention makes people far more easily distracted. In fact, this inability to concentrate leads us to procrastinate finishing tasks, give up when work gets challenging, and resort to the easy route of using AI; our brains are rotting away! We outsource work more than ever before. 

A recent study published by the US National Library of Medicine, which connected the effect of short-form video addiction to undergraduates’ academic procrastination, backs up the consequences of overusing social media. While this study does not condemn the use of social media and neither do I, it is the addiction to it that is worth noticing. It is time for a few minor changes to our routines.

I am not telling you to never pick up your phone again. But you could leave it out of reach when you study, go on a walk without it, or eat in silence without a distraction. Uni can be exhausting and scrolling might seem like an easy way to escape, but it is taking away from our ability to be interesting. Our attention spans are not beyond saving! Embrace the boredom and give your brain a chance to relax.

If you’ve made it this far without checking your phone, CONGRATULATIONS!