Catherine Storke ‘25 is an English major from King George, Va. She enjoys coffee, writing and highly-curated Spotify playlists. On campus, she’s involved with Flat Hat Graphics and W&M’s Baptist Collegiate Ministry. Contact her at castorke@wm.edu.
The views expressed in the article are the author’s own.
Whether I’m taking a seat at the very back of a 200-person lecture in the Integrated Science Center, or circling up with my small Shakespeare seminar, I can’t help but notice one glaring commonality in many of my classes. Glancing over the sea of hunched shoulders and glowing laptops, I can always bet that half of the screens in my view are displaying class notes, and the other half are displaying anything else.
I’m no stranger to this phenomenon, of course. I complete my fair share of Wordles, Quordles and Octordles over the course of a week (it’s probably the most use I get out of my English degree.) The New York Times crossword is a popular distraction as well. Glancing at nearby laptops, I’ve watched impressive runs on 2048, Minecraft and even Papa’s Pizzeria. We appear to be united across academic disciplines by our love for silly little games.
Of course, these minor distractions on their own are not anything nefarious. Getting bored in class is an age-old problem, and the occasional zone-out is just a part of life. Yet more and more it seems that we can’t focus on what’s in front of us. All too often I will sit down to write a short paper for class and end up wasting multiple hours simply because I could not focus for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. My attention is lured away by iMessage conversations and social media notifications. Even in their absence, I restlessly anticipate them. Before I know it, I’ve completed one assignment in the time it could’ve taken to complete five. And this experience is not unique to me. It’s become the staple pastime of many college students.
We live in a culture of endless options and snap decisions. If something on our feed can’t provide the instant dopamine hit we’re looking for, we’ve been conditioned to scroll and move on until we find something that does. We jump from post to post, from app to app, from screen to screen to find the things that pique our interest, at least for a few seconds. There’s no need to search, wait or work for things to marvel at in this era of algorithms. The payoff is instant, and the process is intoxicating.
But this frenzied approach to digital entertainment does not translate well to real life. What happens when it’s time to sit down and grind out a paper or read an entire book? Or later in life, when we will have to attend prolonged work meetings or concentrate on unavoidable projects? These tasks have become unnecessarily daunting for a lot of students simply because of their ongoing struggle to focus. Not only do I feel half as efficient, but the enjoyment I used to derive from my favorite pastimes feels stilted and inaccessible. Worst of all, many students see this struggle as hopeless and irreversible.
Are we gradually losing our ability to consume long-form media or complete extended tasks? Insight from rising ADHD diagnostic rates, social media usage and concerned teachers of inattentive classrooms seem to suggest so.
I fear we are witnessing the slow death of the modern attention span — a demise which hits college students especially hard and has concerning implications for our future.
It’s clear that most of us recognize this wider cultural phenomenon. In many ways we’ve come to accept our ever-waning concentration as a generational quirk or as some inevitable consequence of our tech-obsessed society. We joke about doomscrolling or needing multiple screens of entertainment to complete assignments (insert Subway Surfers gameplay here). We give and receive exhortations to “lock in” and commiserate with each other when we fail to do so.
The problem snowballs when it starts to impair our overall time management and we fall victim to chronic procrastination. When we perceive the difficulty of truly engaging with our tasks, it becomes much easier to put them off. I know firsthand that pit of dread that forms in your stomach before a looming deadline. I’m caught between the common sense solution of starting my essay early and the anxiety of knowing how agonizing the process can be. So, I put it off until the last possible minute and effectively continue the vicious cycle.
It’s discouraging to think how much potential we waste because we simply can’t focus on the things we’re passionate about. As college students, we have the unique privilege of dedicated learning — consistently and intensely studying the areas that represent our deepest values and interests. Yet many of us have become caught in habits of distraction that undercut our ability to do these things.
I know for me, I miss the version of myself who used to finish books in one sitting or spend hours at the piano, the version of me who could be truly engrossed in something. College is the time to be engrossed in things! And so I think it is in the best interest of every student facing a shrinking attention span to fight this growing norm.
Fortunately, science tells us that we are not doomed! Barbara Shinn-Cunningham, director of the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, told TIME Magazine that it is not our actual psychological ability to focus that is being lost, but rather how we abuse our distractions — namely, technology — that accounts for much of our dwindling focus. We have become accustomed to the constant presence of our devices, tuning in to every buzz, message and notification. Adjusting the way we consume media can help us change how we allocate our focus.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that flipping on your phone’s Do Not Disturb button is the solution to all your attention span problems. The issue runs much deeper than that. But I do think that it’s worthwhile to consider the avenues through which we get sucked into distraction and to figure out the right times to close them.
Maybe paper notes are a feasible alternative to using your laptop in that one particularly monotonous lecture. Maybe it’s time to take a break from addictive short-form content like Instagram Reels or TikToks. Maybe it’s just a matter of committing to get more sleep to ensure our brains can function at their best.
Fighting to reclaim your attention span is not a battle that is instant or easy, but the payoff makes life so much more enriching. Of course, there’s always a time and place for momentary distractions when life gets hard. But ultimately, I think we owe it to ourselves to recuperate that vital asset that is our undivided attention. And if you made it through this article in one sitting — congrats! You’re on the right track.
