The school days seem to be getting longer each year. Why does it feel this way? I find that as time goes on students’ attention spans are getting shorter. What could be causing the attention span to decrease? I believe it is from constant stimulation. We are always expecting to be entertained and consume things. Almost like many movies that are coming out in the past decade, they can be called “popcorn movies”. These are movies that have  constantly going on even if they don’t serve any sort of purpose. I feel like this is how we expect things to be sometimes—constantly stimulating ourselves with new things to consume. This is why I believe school can feel so hard and long.

There seems to be theories about why this is happening. Many people tend to directly blame social media for this and I believe it has some correlation but not all. Social media definitely falls under the constant stimulation that we desperately go after. I feel social media passes time in the moments when we may not have anything else to do or don’t want to do what we are supposed to be doing. This leads me to my next question, is this attention span issue a choice or something that can’t be controlled?

Using the excuse of “I can’t control it” will just continue to enable this issue. The way to change and get better at something is to take accountability for the issue. Blaming the media or others often deflects responsibility off ourselves which does nothing. I have heard ADHD as an excuse quite a few times and I think that blaming this on ADHD while not doing anything to help is counterproductive and reinforces negative stereotypes about the people who have it. There may always be excuses why it’s hard to focus but, it’s enabling the problem. At the end of the day paying attention is the students choice. The blame may be shifted to a teacher, phone, or media when the issue is a personal choice. If a student wants to start paying attention in class and not feeling like they can’t stay focused, that’s something that needs to work on. There are some habits to develop that help this issue.

I find one thing that helps is staying as focused as possible. Get so invested in what the teacher is saying and listen to it word for word. Trying to focus on little details as close as possible. Another strategy I find helpful is seeing how long I can go without looking at the clock. Again with trying my best to be mindful of what I’m doing. Lastly, what works for everyone is different. What works for me may not work for others. It’s finding what fits and sticking with it. Reading, meditating, and getting proper sleep along with others may be the most beneficial to increasing focus.

As this school year starts again I hope we can try our very best to feel like we are getting value out of our actions and taking things slowly and mindfully. If people can incorporate this into their life, the majority will often end up being happier overall. It all comes down to personal choice.