| Describe your overall ability to pay attention when it comes to school work (<100 words) On a scale of 1 – 10, indicate how addicted you are to your phones |
| With ADHD, it does take a bit of effort to pay attention when it comes to school work, especially with topics that I am unfamiliar with or that I find boring. I can get things done when I have a period of time that I know I will not be disturbed, but those are rare, and thus it is quite hard for me to get things done. I would rate my addiction to my phone to around a 6 out of 10. When I have nothing to do, I would mainly go look for my phone, but I also have self-control and I work jobs that require me to be away from my device, and that has helped encourage a habit of having moments without screen time. |
| While reading “My Distraction Sickness” please note how long it takes you to get through the piece (Google says it’s a 45 min read); also, count the number of times you get distracted (for whatever reason) and tally them at the end. |
| It took me about 40 minutes in total to read it, but I read it as I was on the train on my way home from work, so there were a few distractions, mostly when someone just got a little too close to me, three phone notification distractions, and once when I had to transfer trains. |
| Describe the tone of all three articles, how do they differ? (<100 words) |
| “My Distraction Sickness” – first person, more casual, more relatable, reader can feel like the author or that they are a part of the story and they are feeling the narrator’s feelings and thoughts as if they were the narrator. Sam Anderson – even more casual than, calmly transitioning from personal anecdotes into research. “The Distracted Student Mind” – professional, yet not formal, basically textbook format. |
| What are Sam Anderson’s primary arguments in defense of distraction? (see part III of In Defense of Distraction) Do you find them convincing? Why or why not (<150 words) |
| Sam Anderson argues how distraction provides little breaks and can lead to more creative discoveries, and is more beneficial for our minds than harmful. He suggests that being able to control and work around these distractions when needed would be helpful, and can help stimulate thinking. I do find them convincing, especially because I have ADHD. I find it hard to sit straight through a long period of time, and sometimes taking little breaks allow me to refocus better, and many times, I have better ideas when I revisit a topic more than once. |
| After reading all three articles, what are your thoughts on this “epidemic of distraction”? (<50 words) |
| I agree with the articles and the authors’ opinions. With our phones and technology, it is really easy to get addicted and have constant distractions, which can be beneficial for working our minds in moderation, but can also affect our ability to focus. |
| Please annotate “My Distraction Sickness” – highlight at least three instances for each of the following rhetoric concepts: > Invention – “I duly surrendered my little device, only to feel a sudden pang of panic on my way back to my seat. If it hadn’t been for everyone staring at me, I might have turned around immediately and asked for it back.” The topic is relatable and a current-day topic. – “A year before, like many addicts, I had sensed a personal crash coming. For a decade and a half, I’d been a web obsessive, publishing blog posts multiple times a day, seven days a week, and ultimately corralling a team that curated the web every 20 minutes during peak hours. Each morning began with a full immersion in the stream of internet consciousness and news, jumping from site to site, tweet to tweet, breaking news story to hottest take, scanning countless images and videos, catching up with multiple memes.” > Style – “We became who we are as a species by mastering tools, making them a living, evolving extension of our bodies and minds.” – “Has our enslavement to dopamine – to the instant hits of validation that come with a wellcrafted tweet or snapchat streak – made us happier?” A question prompts the reader to slightly pause in the reading and to think about the question. – Page 14-15 on, the author goes from a personal story about their mother and the hospital and then transitions into a more research oriented summary about religion. > Pathos – “What first seems tedious and repetitive develops into a skill – and a skill is what gives us humans self-esteem and mutual respect. Yes, online and automated life is more efficient, it makes more economic sense, it ends monotony and “wasted” time in the achievement of practical goals. But it denies us the deep satisfaction and pride of workmanship that comes with accomplishing daily tasks well, a denial perhaps felt most acutely by those for whom such tasks are also a livelihood – and an identity.” – “I’m still not sure what triggered it, but my best guess is that the shady, quiet woodlands, with brooks trickling their way down hillsides and birds flitting through the moist air, summoned memories of my childhood.” And then the narrator goes on to explain the landscape with details and then a personal story about their mother, and the reader just gets absorbed into the scene.3. > Ethos – “Our oldest human skills atrophy. GPS, for example, is a godsend for finding our way around places we don’t know. But…it has led to our not even seeing, let alone remembering, the details of our environment, to our not developing the accumulated memories that give us a sense of place and control over what we once called ordinary life.” – “And yet our need for quiet has never fully gone away, because our practical achievements, however spectacular, never quite fulfill us. They are always giving way to new wants and needs, always requiring updating or repairing, always falling short. The mania of our online lives reveals this: We keep swiping and swiping because we are never fully satisfied.” Also kind of an appeal to emotion, but this quote I feel can resonate with readers quite a bit. |