Let's get one thing straight before I start this post. I have pretty bad ADHD. Completing tasks, getting motivated to do anything, doing things on impulse, paying attention during a conversation, even listening to what I say myself, is a struggle for me. On average, these blog posts take me multiple days to complete, because I cannot focus long enough to write a few paragraphs without going to do something else or flicking through random web pages or phone apps. The college workload is close to impossible for me to keep up with, and I'm usually handing things in with a minute to spare. It is especially bad when I have multiple things to do. If the workload continues to pile up, and the stress of school or work intensifies, I prolong my studying or homework even more. I've considered going on medication or trying to find something to help my motivation, but I'm a little weary about going into a lengthy process of finding out where my issues stem, getting the right balance of medication, spending money on pharmaceuticals, and potentially screwing my head up (worse than it already is, of course).
When this topic came up for this week's blog post, I immediately felt a connection with it. This is the topic which I will have the most bias towards, because of current scatter-brained state of mine.
I do believe that advertisements can be held (partially) responsible for our lack of attention. However, social media and technology overall play the largest part of our concentration issues. Flicking from screen to screen, watching TV or a movie while doing things on our computers or phones, browsing the web, instant messaging and multi-tasking have all led to a lack of concentration and appreciate for working on or doing a single task at hand. I can use a personal example here to further prove my point. When I was a child, although I did have ADHD, I used to be able to sit at home and do my homework each night, with help from my parents of course. It took me a very long time) but I completed my work. In middle school and early on in high school, I was the same. I completed my projects and studied for exams as best as I could. But once I reached grade 11 and 12, and especially in the three years that have since passed (which technology has really taken off since then), I got worse and worse at concentrating on things. My mind is constantly scattered. I'm either completely zoned out; thinking about nothing, or thinking about everything all at once. It takes me days and even weeks to finish homework and I am always struggling to get it done on time. Could this be directly linked to the amount of technology I'm exposed to? Especially considering my field of study, graphic design, which literally centres around technology itself. I think so. I at least think that part of my issues has to do with the amount of crap we're bombarded with every day, in the form of ads and apps.
I checked online for any great articles to link to on this topic, but alas I could only find essays written during the 70s, and obviously, compared to 40 years ago, the amount of ads we are exposed to each day (and the technology we use) is incomparable to the small amount of ads shown during those times. Hopefully more people will begin to look into this correlation and see if we're melting our brains with overexposure.
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