Madeeha Syed

How Social Media Affects Our Attention Span

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Overview

Even though Facebook was launched less than 20 years ago, life without social media seems like a faint memory. There is an entire generation of young adults who never even knew a world without Facebook and Instagram. Even for those of us born before the proliferation of internet technology, it&rsquo;s hard to imagine life without the connectivity that social media has brought with it.

However, this connectivity comes at a cost. We are constantly being bombarded by information and have come to depend on our devices to fill every moment of distraction. 
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In fact, our phones have become so much a part of us that we often hear it vibrate or ring even when it&rsquo;s not doing so. This has become such a common phenomenon that there is now a term for it &mdash; phantom vibration syndrome.

How exactly did social media manage to become such an intrinsic part of our lives? The answer lies perhaps in our compulsive relationship with it, a relationship that is based on our brain&rsquo;s dopamine response. 
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Social Media And Dopamine Loop

Dopamine is a neuromodulator that motivates us to act. Every time a series of behaviours leads to a reward, dopamine is released.

The chemical is also released in anticipation; when we&rsquo;re engaging in a behaviour that we expect to result in a reward, the dopamine process is triggered in anticipation. Indulging in the behaviour itself then leads to a dopamine hit, regardless of whether the external reward is actually received. 
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Social media triggers our dopamine process in two ways: 
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<ul>
	<li>The first one is simply social connection. Human beings have become evolutionarily wired for connection. 
	In prehistoric societies, being part of a tribe meant better chances of survival. As civilisation developed, we came to depend on communities for our physical, emotional, and financial needs. Social interaction triggers a dopamine response in the brain. 
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	<li>A dopamine response is also triggered by novelty. Discovering new information lights up the brain&rsquo;s reward pathways. By extension, searching for new information does the same as it brings with it the anticipation of discovery 
	With our devices, we carry entire massive hyper social environments inside our pockets, which also give us access to an infinite amount of new information. This means our brains are being flooded by dopamine in large quantities on a regular basis. 
	&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h5>How Addiction To Social Media Is Formed</h5>

Unfortunately, large dopamine hits set the stage for addiction. Every time the brain is flooded by the chemical, our homeostasis response goes into action.

To balance out the influx, the brain responds by reducing dopamine transmission not merely to baseline levels, but to below baseline. This leaves us with a dopamine deficiency. Since picking up our phones is a low-effort and low-cost course of action to get another hit, that&rsquo;s what we usually end up doing. We unwittingly become trapped in a dopamine loop that is no different from the addictive cycles that drive substance abuse.

The instantly gratifying nature of social media also trains our brains to expect and want that immediate gratification. Thus, when we are involved in tasks that don&rsquo;t offer an immediate pay-off, we tend to get bored easily and find ourselves reaching for our phones in search of that gratification. 
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<h5>The Myth Of &lsquo;Multi-tasking&rsquo; &ndash; The Social Media &lsquo;Distraction&rsquo; Dominating Your Life </h5>

Large dopamine hits so readily available on our devices, it&rsquo;s no wonder then that we find ourselves reaching constantly for our phones.

It&rsquo;s a situation we&rsquo;re all familiar with. You open your laptop, get started on your work. A few minutes later, your mind starts wandering and the task at hand does not seem too appeasing. Instead of ignoring these thoughts and persevering in the task, you reach for the easily available dopamine hit of your phone. 
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Sometimes, you may get lost in the information bombarding you and, before you know it, you&rsquo;ve lost half an hour.

Other times, the distraction may last only for a few minutes before you&rsquo;re able to bring yourself back to the task at hand. 
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You tell yourself it&rsquo;s okay, that you&rsquo;ve managed to reclaim your focus, that the distraction was only minimal and did little damage. After all, human beings are perfectly capable of multitasking. Well &hellip; that&rsquo;s not necessarily true.

The human brain is capable of only processing one or two conscious thoughts at a time. When we think we are multitasking i.e. processing multiple stimuli simultaneously, what we&rsquo;re actually doing is switching between stimuli.

Our brain does this quickly so as to make it a seamless transition. However, research shows that switching between multiple stimuli in rapid succession actually compromises productivity.

Each time we switch from a task to our phones and then back, our brain is using energy to realign us to the task. We have to remember where we were in the work and also what our last thought was regarding the work. This takes energy. 
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<h5>Switching Between Social Media And The Task At Home Tires Our Brain Out More Quickly</h5>

With social media grappling for our attention at every moment of the day, most of us are constantly spending energy on this transition, using up brain power. None of us have an infinite amount of brain energy. We get tired and need to recharge. When switching constantly between stimuli we are tiring our brains out much quicker than if we were to give a task our complete attention. 
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Bottom Line

It&rsquo;s no wonder then that we find our collective attention span shortening more and more. But what is the solution? 
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The Answer Is Simple:&nbsp;Awareness

Start with becoming mindful of how much time social media robs you of. Every time you feel the need to check your social media app, take a second to acknowledge this instead of acting on it compulsively. 
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Remind yourself of the dopamine loop that is driving you to pick up that phone. Follow this awareness with action. Perhaps start with waiting just one minute before you do check Instagram. Gradually lengthen this time. Every time you find your mind wandering to your Facebook, get yourself to focus on that book for just five more minutes before reaching for the screen.

It takes time, but eventually you&rsquo;ll be able to retrain yourself out of your social media addiction and get your life back.