Repair your attention

     Let's take a closer look at our day:

    Reluctantly dragging yourself out of bed in the morning, completing a series of chores, and starting class or work.

    You open your phone or computer, and as a responsible person, check your emails first, looking for new tasks or responsibilities.

    After checking your emails, you're suddenly drawn to a coat ad on your inbox. A quick click takes you to Taobao.

    Then you remember a friend wearing the coat and uploading a picture, so you decide to check it out on social media.

    Next, you start browsing Weibo, logging into Renren and WeChat, and are again drawn to something, continuing to browse.

    While navigating the online world, you glance at the time; it's almost noon.

    You silently berate yourself, vowing to work or study hard in the afternoon.

    Finally, you can start working in the afternoon, but you know you can't calm down.

    There's a constant urge to go online for entertainment, but you're trying your best to resist.

    In this torment, finally, it's time to leave class or work.

    A sense of relief washes over you, but a deep weariness creeps in. Looking at the tasks yet to be completed, they remain unfinished.

    You feel the world will never be the same again.

    Sound familiar? For many, this is the norm.

    The little person in the dark room—

    undoubtedly, in today's rapidly developing internet age, we are enjoying its convenience. We can visit relatives and friends without traversing mountains, find our desired goods without shopping malls, learn about world events instantly without reading books or newspapers, and find the books we want without browsing library shelves. All of this often requires only a click. Socializing, shopping, and accessing information are so easy; the world is exhilarating.

    As a result, you have an exceptionally busy and tired brain. This fatigue largely stems from the constant shifting of attention. Imagine your brain is a dark room, the outside world is warm sunlight, and your attention is the only window. A little person inside is manipulating this window. When we concentrate, the little figure clings to the window, almost motionless, basking in the sunlight; when we need to shift our attention, the little figure picks up the window and moves to another part of the room, waiting for the sunlight to arrive. In the past, the little figure lived a carefree life because he hardly moved. But in the internet age, can you imagine how miserable his life is? He's constantly moving the window, sometimes even sprinting like a 100-meter dash, running and running until his hands ache and his legs go numb, only to find that not much sunlight is actually coming in, and the room is still dark and damp.

    Tired? Of course.

    Attention is an absolutely neglected and abused resource. Yes, attention is a precious resource, the gateway for the external environment to enter our consciousness. What enters largely determines who we are and our future development, but few people realize this. We spend so much effort managing our money, time, and relationships, yet we remain blind to this hidden resource of our attention. It's time to truly understand attention.

    The 40-minute theory states

    that human attention is limited. Studies show that people's attention and cognitive abilities have certain limits, much like a computer's processor. If too many tasks are running simultaneously, the speed will slow down or even crash. Even when focusing on one thing, adults can only concentrate for about 40 minutes, and children's attention span is relatively shorter.

    Neil Postman, a world-renowned media culture researcher and critic, argued in *Amusing Ourselves to Death* that with the development of new media, the information explosion has greatly increased people's opportunities for distraction, thus shortening their attention span. In 2012, online writer "He Caitou" announced his temporary withdrawal from Weibo, writing in his blog: "The world is now basically a large display screen made up of fragmented information; complete information is very rare." He must have realized the fragmentation of attention brought about by fragmented information, and the decline in concentration made him anxious. Without focus, what tasks can people accomplish?

    The Cocktail Effect:

    Regarding attention, many people wonder: why do we notice some things and ignore others? Don't rush to find the answer. Now imagine you are walking through a friend's party, and people around you are whispering. Suddenly you think you hear someone say your name, but you can't quite make out what they're saying. This is a classic example of "selective attention." Why are you so sensitive to your own name? First, your name is extremely familiar, and attention tends to capture information we are familiar with. Second, influenced by egocentrism, people are more sensitive to information related to themselves. When you hear your own name, you unconsciously think, "What are those two people saying? Are they talking badly about me?" This is the famous "cocktail party effect" in psychology.

    Psychologists have conducted many experiments on the selectivity of attention. One classic experiment is called "binaural hearing." Psychologists had subjects wear headphones, with different content (words) played on the left and right sides. They then checked the subjects' memory of the words. The results showed that both ears could hear some content, but one ear was more dominant. In other words, attention does indeed have a certain degree of selectivity.

    Where there is selection, there is competition. You may not realize that attention has become a valuable resource that needs to be fought over. For example, negative news about a celebrity suddenly breaks out online, or news about a celebrity's private life. The appearance of such news often signifies the recent release of a new movie starring this celebrity or the release of a new song. This is a well-known form of commercial hype. Some might ask, if it's publicity, why is it mostly negative? Won't this cause people to dislike the movie or song? Of course, this is a valid concern, but businesses are more focused on attracting your attention and grabbing your eyeballs. They want you to remember the event, and the public's penchant for gossip is undoubtedly a key factor in capturing attention. Furthermore, because violent and pornographic content is more likely to attract attention, many businesses exploit this human weakness for hype, targeting your attention and money. People's attention is like a naive child, constantly attracted and controlled by various stimuli, especially evident in the age of information overload. If we indulge our attention, letting it wander among different stimuli without spending time thinking and learning, we become exhausted and even dull.

    Attention repair theory

    suggests that 6% to 7% of people in life want to concentrate but cannot. They are easily distracted, jumping from one task to another; they can't sit still and have difficulty concentrating. This is more common in children, especially boys, who are often a headache for parents and teachers. This problem isn't limited to children; many adults also suffer from an inability to control their attention, a problem often overlooked. Interestingly, research has found that people with attention deficit disorder enjoy watching television. Studies on the relationship between attention deficit disorder and internet addiction have found a significant positive correlation: those with poor attention management skills are more prone to internet addiction. Reflecting on these findings, it's easy to see that new media like television and the internet provide opportunities for distraction, posing a significant threat to people's attention span.

    Distractibility not only affects our efficiency in doing things but also our mental health. Once we realize that attention is a precious resource, we must learn to manage it well. Environmental psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan proposed the "Attention Restoration Theory" in 1980, arguing that mental fatigue often manifests as a lack of concentration, therefore restoring attention should be a key focus of stress reduction. Their research suggests that to restore and even improve attention, one should go to nature.

    Besides going to nature, in this information-saturated, easily distracted era, we should learn to be masters of our own lives. Regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the internet, some scholars say: the internet makes smart people smarter and stupid people stupider.