Problem
It seems like you have trouble paying attention, and . . . wait, what?
Reality
You (and nearly every other Canadian) have a very weak attention span, and mobile devices are to blame.
Method
In a study aimed at advertisers, Microsoft recruited two thousand Canadians to play simple online games in order to measure their attention spans. They also hooked 112 of these people up to EEG machines to measure brainwaves during said online game playing. Also, the participants completed a survey on digital use.
Results
Back in 2000, we managed a twelve second attention span. These days, we’re at eight seconds, largely due to our mobile devices.
Furthermore, 44% of participants said they had to concentrate really hard to stay focused, 37% said they weren’t optimising their time and hand to work evening and weekends, 52% said they reached for their phone every thirty minutes or fewer, and 79% said they used mobile devices while watching TV.
The Takeaway
Repeat after us: put your phone down. If you don’t want to be one of those people working evenings and weekends to make up for poor time management, take up meditation. It’s scientifically proven to help.
