Attention spans around the United States are shrinking rapidly which affects children’s school days. Children around the US struggle especially with heightened anxiety and lack of sleep according to recent studies, affecting their attention spans in school each and every day.
Many kids around Triton have to deal with their limited attention span to make it through the school day productively. For 180 days out of each year, students spend around six hours sitting in a classroom and are expected to pay attention.
For many of the students at Triton High School, paying attention is extremely difficult. Teachers deal with the short attention spans of teenagers.
For Carolyn Savage, it is extremely difficult for her to keep her mind from wandering. Carolyn was asked about her own attention span throughout the day. “My attention span during class is REALLY bad, I just fall asleep instead,” said the Senior. She her ‘ mind wanders while trying to stay focused in school. “I’m just bored in class so I think about things I would be doing if I wasn’t in school.”
A lot of students wish that they were anywhere else but at school in the classroom, and this can be a huge distraction from their school work.
Teachers around the school are definitely aware of the shrinking attention spans.Support teacher, Mr. Kurt Reise shared his thoughts about how unless something enjoyable is being done, students ‘attention is very limited.. “I find that students’ attention spans during class are between 0 and very little unless they are doing something that they enjoy doing.”
During instruction time, students tend to space out or just cannot stay focused. “I cannot focus whenever the teacher is talking,” said Sophomore Molly Morris.
Phones have been a big contributor to the shrinking attention spans of teenagers. Studies have shown that phones play a huge role in the weakening attention spans of teenagers.
Recent studies confirm attention spans are shrinking, with causes linked to stress, anxiety, and digital device use. A recent Ohio State University survey identified stress and anxiety as the top culprits, followed by lack of sleep and digital devices. In a podcast on the American Physiological Association titled Why our attention spans are shrinking with Gloria Mark, PhD she said shrinking attention spans are something that I think we should be very concerned about as a society.” Mark stated.” Mark stated.
One answer may be more reading in the classroom. In a book titled The Shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains by Nicholas Carr, the author stated that “books, for example, can train the brain to deeply focus its attention on one task, while mobile devices encourage us to peck and hover over the surface of things without fully grasping them.”
Implemented this year by Triton, the new no phone policy states that students have to put their phones in an over the door pocket holder whenever they enter class.This is less of an issue but distractions remain present throughout the day.
In an interview with the Triton Voice support teacher, Ms. Aimee Mansfield said “I think the phones have already done enough damage” but when asked about if she asked thinks the new no phone policy helps keeping kids attention during class and Ms. Mansfield also added, “I think it also limits the distractions during class”
In Mark’s podcast, it was widely talked about why attention spans are rapidly shrinking. “We find that when people are engaged and challenged, there seems to be rhythms on the day when this happens. And people seem to have peaks of times when they do this. We call this focused attention, tends to be late morning and again mid to late afternoon, about two to three. And when people are very engaged in something and not at all challenged, we call that rote activity.” stated Mark. So this timing of focusedness does not last through the school day.
It was also said that breaks are good to keep people’s attention. “…By taking breaks, we have more energy, we have more attentional capacity, and we can actually do more. We can be more productive. The problem is that in our current world, many work environments, people neglect to take meaningful breaks, and we get ourselves into a position where our performance suffers as a result.”
Some say that more breaks throughout the school day would help students stay focused, but currently the only real break for students is a 25-minute lunch period. “It’s really important to take a break at a point in the task that’s called a break point.”
In an interview with the Triton Voice, Junior Riley Dinsmore was asked if she thinks a break in the middle of classes would help keep herself productive throughout the day. “I think that it would allow me to let myself disengage for a few minutes then get back to the assignment or whatever we are doing in class more focused.”
