Has gaming and the modern world reduced your attention span?

[Ronald Nand]

Has anyone found that playing games and the vast amount of content available in our time reduced your attention span.

I've found my attention span has decreased significantly, I find it difficult to just sit down and watch something non-interactive, the only thing I have no trouble just sitting down and watching is Game of Thrones, other things like movies or other TV shows its difficult to watch without doing something like playing a simple IPhone game.

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

 

[tippy2k2]

Has gaming and the modern world OHLOOKABIRD!

I'm sure there are plenty of people with that problem. I'm not one of them (go me!) unless I specifically set out to do two things at once (for example, I play Clash of Clans on my phone, while waiting for my troops to train again, I will pick up a game of Madden or something that I can easily put down again when I'm ready to fight in Clans again).

Then again, I'm 28 and got my first cell phone right after college so I wasn't raised with these devices in my lap 24-7. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but these kind of issues seem more common in the youngions than the old people.

 

[Lilani]

I think the answer is technically yes, but I don't think that's quite going on. Yes we've grown used to dealing with lots of different stimuli in a short amount of time, but I wouldn't call that a "shortened attention span," because that would suggest we're dealing with the same situation differently. But we aren't. The situation has also changed. There's a lot more for us to deal with at once, so yes of course this has become the way our mind naturally operates. If we didn't grow to expect so many things to be happening at once, we wouldn't be able to properly deal with the media-filled world we now live in.

So in general the question of "has technology shortened our attention span" bothers me because it suggests this new mindset is some kind of newly developed deficiency that's only hurting us. But honestly, to not have such a mindset in today's world would be a deficiency in itself. Yes I think everybody should be able to chill out and focus on fewer things for a while, but we are conditioned to deal with the world we live in as best we can. Multitaskers and people with ADHD have always existed, Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other, and former President Lyndon Johnson could watch six TVs at once and know what was going on in everyone of them. The only difference is we now live in a world where such a mindset is now required to function, at least to a certain extent.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

No, I always do one thing at a time, and I don't distract easily from it. I've read books my entire life, I think engaging in a purely abstract activity that requires interpretation helps concentration and mental detachment.

 

[Therumancer]

Has anyone found that playing games and the vast amount of content available in our time reduced your attention span.

I've found my attention span has decreased significantly, I find it difficult to just sit down and watch something non-interactive, the only thing I have no trouble just sitting down and watching is Game of Thrones, other things like movies or other TV shows its difficult to watch without doing something like playing a simple IPhone game.

Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me?

Not really, but then again I tend to prefer games that take a lot of attention, the more shallow ones that just sort of flow don't appeal to me as much. I do however think that most media in modern society has worked to make people have shorter attention spans and be more malleable. There are even conspiracy theories about it being intentionally orchestrated by governments(take your pick) or some kind of Illuminati or New World Order coalition. To be honest I actually had attention deficit problems, and scary enough I think I'm better off when it comes to things that matter than a lot of people who do not have such problems.

To be frank with you though, it's hard to really point to a pattern strong enough to really say much about it. Though as far as I can tell the problems seemed not to start with video games. Like a lot of conspiracy theorists I'd actually point fingers towards MTV as being the thing that started it. Even going back to when MTV still played music it was heavily into things like "buzz clips", "factoids", and very loud, fast paced, immediate gratification media. A style that was distinctly it's own at the time, though was later widely imitated. Lots of forms of entertainment were also fired off at the youth one thing at a time in the form of video games increasingly following similar kinds of patterns. Interestingly some theories also point to MTV being at the spear point of promoting vapidity as being a positive trait, and pushing banal reality TV concepts, which is another thing that can be attributed to the mental decay of society. Supposedly when analyzed a lot of this stuff is arguably the worst possible stuff people can jam into their brains, especially at a developmental stage, to the point where it almost seems like it was created to be that way. The evolution of video games could also be fit into this pattern. While people talk about casuals and mainstreaming, it is true that you do tend to see far more, faster, simpler, and shorter games being produced today, where smarter games more or less disappeared pretty rapidly due to alleged sales problems when they used to dominate. We say went from tons of successful RPGs on the PS-2 system to very few compared to superficial immediate gratification action games on the PS-3, and arguably games have been getting even worse.... of course this is a tin foil hat brigade theory, but one that bears some thinking about (since the subject was brought up) since this is a problem people have been talking about since before people framed it with video games. Of course like any such conspiracy theory it involves some rather implausible things, since you'd pretty much have needed an organization capable of more or less giving marching orders to every media company on earth while maintaining the illusion they were all independent, that also has invested a lot of time and research into what amounts to a long term, multi-generational psychological warfare attack. This would involve playing such a long game that one has to wonder who would benefit from it, as those who started it probably wouldn't be alive to reap the benefits, what's more the world balance of power has shifted to the point where it's close to meaningless. US politicians doing it for control of the government makes no sense as those who started it would long since be out of power, and simply put the major rivals who could have done it have waffled in strength constantly (like Russia). The very concept of an Illuminati raises the question of motive because if they already control everything, and everyone is in the dark, they have no need for large scale manipulation of this sort, they already achieved any goal this could lead to just by being where they are.

That said I feel pretty content in saying that I think it's less video games than modern media in general. Rather than a conspiracy I see it as being the equivalent of candy and comfort food. We came up with an approach we found pleasant and overindulged it in every possible way. The current forms of entertainment are brain candy, and our brains are rotting from subsisting on candy and very little else. Sure some decent stuff might come up once in a while, but it doesn't much matter, sort of like eating one salad a month when every other meal you down Hershey's bars. A generation that grew up on MTV and followed it's shift into reality programming for example, lost the ability to really see what's wrong with say "Honey Boo Boo", or why there is something a bit wrong about an educational "History Channel" running programs almost non stop about junk collectors and pawn shop owners. Sure you might technically "learn something" but a lot of the stuff is recycled, I mean there is only so many ways you can say "old store signs can be valuable" for example.

The lack of ability to focus on things like TV could come from a lot of things, like the banality of most current TV and a healthier mind basically rejecting something that can't properly stimulate it, to people who have simply fried and conditioned themselves so much that it's simply impossible for most programming to meet the needs in terms of speed and constant stimulation.

Me, I'm enough of a mess in so many ways I don't represent a good baseline for anything like this. I can only speculate.... and as I said, people have been talking about it for years. A lot of the early dislike of MTV that had parents and teachers going after it despite assurances "there was nothing wrong with it" was concerns about kids growing up exactly like this... and frankly that old MTV content is nothing compared to the way things are done today. Even in terms of speed and fast content things like "The Buzz" can seem almost quaint if you look back at them.

 

[Guffe]

I don't think so.
I mean I've been playing games since forever and can't say I would have noticed this is me.
Many researches say this is true, and I can understand the correlation, but not for me personally.

 

[briankoontz]

ADHD is more of a solution than a problem. In a dying world time compresses as our long-term future is extinguished, the result is an anxious frantic search for solutions. Humans become quicker, quickly moving from one failure to the next - the acronym for this psycho-cultural reality is ADHD. Doctors term it a "disorder" because they define everything in relation to an unchanging model for humanity, ignoring the fact that humans change IN RESPONSE to a changing environment.

Much of the modern world is based on speed, one might say a "need for speed" - computerization, communication, travel, modern media especially video games. This "need for speed" is fundamentally based on the dying world and the fact that humanity itself has a very limited lifespan. We've been in the process of answering the question "What would humanity do if they didn't have long left to live?" for a while now and that will continue until the final days.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Much as I don't particularly like that we're reaching total pop culture/media saturation, I'm not about to start believing that I'm able to see all of society at any one time in an accurate manner.

If anything, this is an era of choice; obviously you can make noises about impressionability and development, but then again perhaps unconventially I don't personally believe that actual intelligence always corroborates with choice of entertainment.

 

[veloper]

When it comes to entertainment, like games and television, I have less and less patience for it, but then as you grow older, you also realize most of it was and is crap.
I will still sit down for a good book.

 

[lacktheknack]

Absolutely.

I struggle to read and write at the calibre that I did in Jr. High... shortly before my gaming started to become a real problem. It's not the vocabulary or style that I can't deal with, it's the length of time and dedication required for each thing.

Even now, I struggle to remember the smallest things even mere seconds after they happen. Do you know how frustrating it is to think to yourself "Put on socks", and then immediately get up and leave the room without socks?

And my attention span and memory has been getting much better recently... when I left my computer at home and went to a different country for months.

 

[Barbas]

Has gaming and the modern world OHLOOKABIRD!

I'm sure there are plenty of people with that problem. I'm not one of them (go me!) unless I specifically set out to do two things at once (for example, I play Clash of Clans on my phone, while waiting for my troops to train again, I will pick up a game of Madden or something that I can easily put down again when I'm ready to fight in Clans again).

Then again, I'm 28 and got my first cell phone right after college so I wasn't raised with these devices in my lap 24-7. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but these kind of issues seem more common in the youngions than the old people.

An excellent point, my good-...SQUIRREL! O_O

OT: Yeah, a little, but you can fix that problem by taking an extended break and doing things that require you to focus and concentrate for longer - reading, drawing, painting, something like that. As long as you do that fairly regularly, you shouldn't have much of a problem.

 

[Ronald Nand]

That said I feel pretty content in saying that I think it's less video games than modern media in general.

I'm not suggesting video games are the sole cause of my lowered attention span, to me the factors that contribute to my lower attention span are the large amount of media available to us, the higher level of interactivity found in video games and simple mobile games that don't require 100% of your attention.

I think my problem is that for a long time when I entertain myself I'm playing an active role in that entertainment, I'm doing stuff while being entertained. So now passive media needs to work extra hard to get my attention, only the most immerse passive media can get my full attention, stuff like Game of Thrones, even good shows have a hard time getting my full attention. Its also the fact that most IPhone games don't require your full attention either, so I can multitask, but I feel guilty doing this as I'm missing out by not focusing on the passive media

The lack of ability to focus on things like TV could come from a lot of things, like the banality of most current TV and a healthier mind basically rejecting something that can't properly stimulate it, to people who have simply fried and conditioned themselves so much that it's simply impossible for most programming to meet the needs in terms of speed and constant stimulation.

I find myself doing this with decent and good shows though like Agents of Shield, Gotham and South Park, I'm not watching reality TV crap and feeling guilty that I'm missing out on the content.

Yeah, a little, but you can fix that problem by taking an extended break and doing things that require you to focus and concentrate for longer - reading, drawing, painting, something like that. As long as you do that fairly regularly, you shouldn't have much of a problem.

The only thing that requires a great deal of concentration and is something I'd like to do, is trying to learn how to make games using my 100 level programming skills, so I can make the game idea in my head. I suppose I could try and discipline myself and force myself to put away my IPhone when I watch a TV show again.

 

[Therumancer]

That said I feel pretty content in saying that I think it's less video games than modern media in general.

I'm not suggesting video games are the sole cause of my lowered attention span, to me the factors that contribute to my lower attention span are the large amount of media available to us, the higher level of interactivity found in video games and simple mobile games that don't require 100% of your attention.

I think my problem is that for a long time when I entertain myself I'm playing an active role in that entertainment, I'm doing stuff while being entertained. So now passive media needs to work extra hard to get my attention, only the most immerse passive media can get my full attention, stuff like Game of Thrones, even good shows have a hard time getting my full attention. Its also the fact that most IPhone games don't require your full attention either, so I can multitask, but I feel guilty doing this as I'm missing out by not focusing on the passive media

The lack of ability to focus on things like TV could come from a lot of things, like the banality of most current TV and a healthier mind basically rejecting something that can't properly stimulate it, to people who have simply fried and conditioned themselves so much that it's simply impossible for most programming to meet the needs in terms of speed and constant stimulation.

Well, the thing is that Game Of Thrones got such attention because it's operating at a higher level than most TV shows and has largely avoided and undermined a lot of expected tropes, most famously in regularly whacking popular characters. While entertaining a lot of the shows you mention like "Agents Of Shield", "South Park", and others are all largely the definition of brain candy despite being popular and well done, basically they are good candy like gourmet chocolate as opposed to something you pick up on the cheap to fill a sudden craving, that doesn't change what it is though. "South Park" for example has become as predictable in it's style as anything else, and really seems to have stopped pushing the envelope as much as it used to, in a lot of cases you can predict what's going to happen, and a lot of the unpredictable elements come from badly animated TV characters say reinacting a scene from some movie. "Agents Of Shield" is decent for what it is, but other than being set in The Marvel Universe it's pretty much a bog standard action adventure/Agents show. If you've seen things like say "Alias" then you've pretty much seen what SHIELD is doing including the weirdness and multiple ongoing meta plots woven into the narrative. Even having the agents going rogue and/or rebuilding an agency isn't anything particularly special especially with what they just did with the latest version of Nikita. Not to mention that in some respects SHIELD is kind of groan worthy, I get that it's Joss Whedon and he has his trade marks, but when you consider you have May, and Skye taking the lead for a lot of the stuff with the male characters seemingly filling the role of support (even Coulson) or providing tension (like Ward) it becomes eye rolling, not because it's bad, but because it comes across like every other female-centric action/agent show that's been around fairly recently, and there have been quite a few of them (multiple versions of Nikita, Covert Affairs, Alias) even some of the girl power bits (such as subverting the trope of the girl doing sensual acrobatics to get through laser beams) that are supposed to surprise you pretty much elicit a "been there, done that" vibe when they simply subvert the tropes it seems everyone else was doing. What's more I've even joked that as time goes on it seems like May and Sky are turning more and more into Nikita and Alex (Asian super-fighter agent, and a protégé with mysterious family issues), oh and then let's add the sexual tensions with the stud who happens to be loyal to the organization they are fighting against (a big deal in the beginning of Nikita).... I probably wouldn't notice as much if this hadn't just happened.

Basically my point is that even if you haven't seen the shows I'm talking about, you might recognize the tropes since they have become particularly Omni-present recently. Agents Of SHIELD does this all very well, don't get me wrong, but is it doing anything particularly new or thought provoking? Not really. The biggest game is picking out the names and references that tie it to Marvel, but then again when they do finally give a payoff usually their version is little like the comics version, and comes across as being similar to a stock genera bad guy from one of the other shows, just that now it's a "re envisioning of an existing marvel character". You know having a version of Whiplash for example who is just a special forces/agent guy who does a fight scene with a flexible weapon at one point, no costume, not particularly super, he just had the behind the mask name. Seems like someone Maggie Q or Jennifer Garner would have had a dust up with in one of their shows, albeit with a brand name (and let's be blunt Jennifer Garner got her butt kicked by Quentin Tarantino... twice I believe in different episodes, which was actually kind of different and unexpected... and by this I mean literally Quentin Tarantino, he wasn't directing, he showed up playing a big time enemy agent).

In short, don't worry about it too much. The shows are good, but not great. Game Of Thrones right now is in a different league for the moment, though I expect with time we'll see imitators to the point where we'll see "Sword and Sorcery Dramas where everyone dies" popping out left and right eventually. Some will probably be pretty good, but no matter how convoluted they try and make it, or what labels they use, you'll recognize it and won't get the same kind of enjoyment you did when the whole idea was new, even if one of the shows winds up being objectively better, handling the same basic material better than anyone else did, including the original.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

So in general the question of "has technology shortened our attention span" bothers me because it suggests this new mindset is some kind of newly developed deficiency that's only hurting us. But honestly, to not have such a mindset in today's world would be a deficiency in itself. Yes I think everybody should be able to chill out and focus on fewer things for a while, but we are conditioned to deal with the world we live in as best we can. Multitaskers and people with ADHD have always existed, Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other, and former President Lyndon Johnson could watch six TVs at once and know what was going on in everyone of them. The only difference is we now live in a world where such a mindset is now required to function, at least to a certain extent.

I agree that there's way too many people who think that an increase in technological advancement is contributing to the downfall of humanity (EDIT: not that I'm saying anyone here thinks this). Multitasking is a major asset, and not only when it comes to electronic devices.

To use a non-electronics example, when I make breakfast, I pour water in the kettle and heat it, to make tea, Mix eggs and flour and heat it to make a tortilla, heat a filet of salmon on the frying pan. Being able to have all of those 3 things heating at the same time means it takes me less time to make breafast.

 

[wooty]

No, I believe my shit job has lessened my attention span. And my intelligence too, definitely time for a change.

But I have noticed that I've been feeling more depressed the more I game. I went to Japan for a couple of months and then later on spent two weeks in Germany and Italy, and felt better than I ever have in years. Maybe its also time for a change of hobby too, need to get out there and meet more people.

 

[Raikas]

I'd say yes to the decreased attention span, but I wouldn't say it's from gaming - I think it's more a matter of easy access to a constant stream of new information.

ADHD is more of a solution than a problem. In a dying world time compresses as our long-term future is extinguished, the result is an anxious frantic search for solutions. Humans become quicker, quickly moving from one failure to the next - the acronym for this psycho-cultural reality is ADHD. Doctors term it a "disorder" because they define everything in relation to an unchanging model for humanity, ignoring the fact that humans change IN RESPONSE to a changing environment.

Eh, maybe in some cases. I've met some folks in the 35+ ages who were diagnosed before ADHD was in out there in the common consciousness, and some of those people do seem to have a genuine impairment when it comes to things outside of the classroom examples that people point to.

 

[kasperbbs]

I'm not sure if gaming is to blame, but i'm having a hard time watching a TV show or a movie thats not particularry interesting without playing with my phone or seeing if escapist is discussing something other than feminism for a change. But if it's something that i really enjoy, like 'game of thrones' for example then it has my full undivided attention. If i was to blame something it would be the fact that a lot of media currently airing is not that good and since i started working full time i became more conscious of my spare time and am trying to use it to the max and watching subpar shows like 'arrow' thinking 'why is this ***** Laurel still alive?' makes me want to do something else instead.

 

[sanquin]

I still have no problem focusing, if media and such are out of reach for a while. With media at my fingertips, though, I prefer doing 2 things at once. (like a game and watching something.) I don't think it's related though, as I've always had a short attention span, even before I had a computer or anything like that.

 

[The Random Critic]

I don't really find that a reduction in attention span to be a phrase I am looking for, it's more like I get to procrastinate a lot better.

This is mainly due to the massive amount of information and discussion that occurs the web nowadays. When it comes to stuff(that includes games/school/other crap) I care about and not afraid of trying, I can put a good 3-5 consistent hours on it. (and think about it consistently much later on)

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

I dont know, I have never lived in a world but the modern one.