The internet is creating a generation of heedless?

Study says people lose concentration after just eight seconds, and teachers say that the Internet is creating a generation that is easily distracted. But there are ways to reverse this situation.



A plethora of tabs open in the browser, e-mail alerts ringing every five minutes or the phone constantly vibrating with notifications WhatsApp or news applications: with so much information at the same time, it becomes increasingly difficult to focus on activity or read an entire page of a book without being distracted.

According to a study conducted by Microsoft and published by Time magazine, people lose concentration after only eight seconds on average - less time than nine seconds a goldfish (goldfish) need to be distracted. In 2000, the average attention span was 12 seconds, the decrease this time a possible sign of the effects of the internet in the brain.

The study found differences between generations. Regarding the use of smartphones, 77% of respondents between 18 and 24 said that when nothing is occupying your attention, the first thing they do is pick up the phone. For those over 65, the percentage is only 10%.
Generation distracted

The effects of technology are most noticeable fact among young people. A study by the Pew Research Center in Washington, pointed out that among 2,500 teachers surveyed, 77% said that the impact of the Internet and digital technologies is particularly positive.

Among the positive effects, they pointed out that the best students have access to more information and greater depth and that many can benefit from the availability of educational materials in multimedia formats.

However, 87% of teachers said that these tools are creating a generation that is easily distracted, with short concentration times. 64% of teachers, digital technologies more distracting students than help in learning.

Teachers said they worry about excessive reliance on search engines, the difficulty of judging the quality of online information, and the increase in distractions and worst skills to manage own time.

86% of surveyed teachers, other students are now connected and need more time away from digital technologies. Some of the teachers have associated "overexposure" technology to a lack of focus and a lower ability to retain knowledge.

Stimulus to distraction

Internet users are constantly encouraged to be distracted. online pages are designed to attract the most clicks possible, with videos, advertisements and links, allowing an endless tabbed browsing and more tabs.

According to an article in the blog Gaming Debugged, entitled How the Internet sabotages your concentration and what to do about it, when a person surfs the internet, the brain tries to be multitask, or perform various activities simultaneously.

"After a while, your brain can get stuck in a permanent distraction so because you trained for this," the article says. "It may seem impossible to finish anything you are doing without switching to another problem or activity. This takes a long time lost."


Exercises for concentration

The brain is an organ able to adapt and create new ways, says the blog. Therefore, it would be possible to train the ability to focus on a same task for long periods of time.

One tip is to be aware of their own mind and their attempts to escape. When it comes to desire to do something else, it is important to strive to end the current activity before you start something new.

Reading books, newspapers and magazines that offer no distractions in the form of links, can also help. In addition, it is important to disconnect for a period of the day, turning off the TV, the phone and the computer.

"The answer is not simply stop to connect or to stop being multitask. In fact, learn how to concentrate better help your mind to focus intentionally on individual tasks and to disconnect quickly and regain focus when needed, making your multitasking more efficient, "the article says.

The output thus would exert more control over their attention, preventing the chaos of distractions decrease the brain's ability to deal with them.

According to the study of Microsoft, while the average attention span has decreased in recent years, the ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time, or multitask be improved considerably.