| 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 you phones |
| 8, quite addicted I have trouble paying attention to my schoolwork because it gets boring. I tell myself that I’ll take a quick 5-minute break that turns into a 15-minute break then eventually I just end up not finishing the work that day. There’s also the ease of simply grabbing my phone and going on it to entertain myself. I don’t believe this affects my grades because I still end up getting my schoolwork done, and finding the time to study. |
| 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 39 minutes to read it, and I tallied up 7 for the amount of times I got distracted. |
| Describe the tone of all three articles, how do they differ? (<100 words) |
| The tone of Sullivan’s piece is reflective and depressing. He viewed his addiction to his devices as something severely wrong with him, so much so that he went on a meditation retreat where he reflected about his experience. Along with that, there’s anecdotes within the essay about his mother’s mental health and the effect of that on him. Sullivan feels that technological devices are stealing us from real-world interactions and living in the present moment. The tone of Anderson’s piece is more informal and casual as he uses jokes and irony. Anderson isn’t heavily critical of distractions because of technology, and he discusses both the positives and negatives of it. Rosen’s tone is of concern for this generation. The article contains a lot of statistics and scientific information to show the distractedness of students. Following that, comes advice to help increase focus, displaying Rosen’s concern for the lack of it in students. |
| 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) |
| Anderson’s argument in defense of distraction is that it’s an opportunity to gain knowledge. Anderson uses an example from his recent life experience in which he learned about the Boston Molasses Disaster. Technology is a way for people to gain new knowledge on topics they’re interested in and can help develop new interests. Anderson also argues that focus is a paradox by referring to William James’ experiment where one stares at a dot for as long as possible. However, the dot only becomes a cumulation of distractions. Anderson argues that trying to get rid of distractions is problematic. |
| After reading all three articles, what are your thoughts on this “epidemic of distraction”? (<50 words) |
| I think the epidemic of distraction does exist and is going to become a large issue soon. More and more of the younger generations have cell phones, causing attention spans to decrease severely as students are distracted by them. There are also parents who give their toddlers and young children iPad, starting the phrase “iPad babies.” By allowing technology access to children at such a young age can seemingly cause attention span issues as the children develop. |