Shortening attention affecting well-being?

Ah. Do we, today, read more superficially than we once did? Is our attention span more fragmented? Prima facie I suspect that this is somewhat true. Apparently, journalist and author Nicholas Carr thinks so too, "recollect[ing] that formerly he would read immersively, engaging deeply with narrative, like a scuba diver. Now he is a jetski reader, skimming across the surface at speed" (Smith, 2023)... or in Nicholas's original words, "My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski" (Carr, 2008).

So how really true is this? Is it 'somewhat' true? Rarely true? And how do we find out? A quick GoogleScholar search provides many articles, some of which are from quite dodgily named, and likely predatory journals "International Journal of Trend in Research and Development" (Subramanian, 2018), or articles based on debunked ideas such as "digital natives" (Fillmore, 2015). But I did find a couple of seemingly reliable sources suggesting that any "evidence on any long-term impacts of smartphone-related habits on attentional functioning is quite thin" (Wilmer et al., 2017, p. 7) and "there is currently no evidence from neuroscience studies that typical internet use harms the adolescent brain" (Bell et al., 2015, p. 1).

Further, when we are reading something, then have to turn to looking up a key term, linking back to previously read data, or some other kind of fact checking, this is not a new habit when we are learning: it is one as old as libraries and reference stacks. And - surprisingly - rolodexes: 

It is "important to bear in mind that the sort of 'memory externalization' [cited] is by no means a new issue. The same concerns could, for instance, be made regarding a Rolodex. Invented in the 1950s, this ‘rolling index’ provided a system to organize one’s contacts into an easy to access alphabetized structure. It allowed its users to remember where an individual’s contact was located, rather than needing to memorize the full contact information. Determining whether externalizing cognitive processes via smartphone [and hopefully therefore translatable to any other digital device] is necessarily worse than externalizing cognitive processes via older methods will be an important avenue for future research" (Wilmer et al., 2017, p. 9). 

So from my brief research, it doesn't really look like a shortening attention span is very true at all. Instead it appears that our increase of time spent inside and not having 'enough' physical activity is more likely a factor in our health and well-being (Wilmer et al., 2017). Why? Because we get less good quality sleep if we don't get enough sun or exercise; and those two things also indicate less balance in our lives and too much stress.

Time to get outside.

Sam

References:

Bell, V., Bishop, D. V., & Przybylski, A. K. (2015). The debate over digital technology and young people: Needs less shock and more substance. Bmj, 351, 1-2. http://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h3064

Carr, N. (2008, July/August). Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/

Fillmore, H. A. (2015). The effect of daily internet usage on a short attention span and academic performance. [Bachelor thesis, Hochschule Mitweida University of Applied Sciences]. https://monami.hs-mittweida.de/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/7307/file/ANDREW+FILLMORE+BACHELOR.pdf

Smith, E. (2023, October 23). The big idea: are our short attention spans really getting shorter?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/23/the-big-idea-are-our-short-attention-spans-really-getting-shorter

Subramanian, K. R. (2018). Myth and mystery of shrinking attention span. International Journal of Trend in Research and Development, 5(3), 1-6. http://www.ijtrd.com/papers/IJTRD16531.pdf

Wilmer, H. H., Sherman, L. E., & Chein, J. M. (2017). Smartphones and cognition: A review of research exploring the links between mobile technology habits and cognitive functioning. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 605. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00605