Distraction Worksheet

Distraction Worksheet

There are specific factors that can maximize my ability to pay attention to schoolwork. I believe setting, mood, and time of day play huge roles in determining how well you can focus and how efficiently you can get work done. This semester, I’ve been experimenting to see how changing these factors can help or hurt my focus. I would say I’m addicted 7/10. I do check my phone more than I should, but I do understand its detrimental influence and know that if I NEED to get work done, that also means I need to keep my phone out of sight and out of mind. - I got distracted countless times when reading “My Distraction Sickness.” It took about an hour to read through. - In Defense of Distraction is humorous. The author delivers their point but keeps the reader engaged throughout the text. Sullivan’s “My Distraction Sickness” follows a narrative style of writing. There is less humor and more depth to the story presented. And the article is obviously more academic. - Anderson says that distraction, although it seems contradictory to some, is in fact an element of focus. Through the advancement of technology, we as a species are evolving. I understand his points, but I would disagree overall and say that although evolution does bring change, not all change is good or healthy. - Distraction IS an epidemic. We are taking in too much information within too little time. - Invention:

• “We almost forget that ten years ago, there were no smartphones, and as recently as 2011, only a third of Americans owned one. Now nearly two thirds do. That figure reaches 85 percent when you’re only counting young adults. And 46 percent of Americans told Pew surveyors last year a simple but remarkable thing: They could not live without one.”
• “2015 study of young adults found that participants were using their phones five hours a day, at 85 separate times”
• “Since our earliest evolution, humans have been unusually passionate about gossip, which some attribute to the need to stay abreast of news among friends and family as our social networks expanded. We were hooked on information as eagerly as sugar. And give us access to gossip the way modernity has given us access to sugar and we have an uncontrollable impulse to binge.”

  Style:

• “Perhaps the only “safe space” that still exists is the shower.”
• “I heard birdsong for the first time in years. Well, of course, I had always heard it, but it had been so long since I listened.”

Memory:

• “Am I exaggerating?”

Pathos:

• X

Ethos:

• Throughout the narration, Sullivan writes in bold letters when he’s adding to his real life story where he went through the downs and ups of distraction. Having been through the process himself, this gives him credibility to speak on and against vices of using smartphones and other neuro-overloading stimulants.
• Sullivan’s experience doing the silent meditation journey is huge for his credibility.