Overcoming the Distractions of the Attention Economy in the Environment of Remote Learning
The technology that surrounds us today is something many of us have made a normal in our lives. Each day we spend so much time surrounded by our phone and computers for leisure, entertainment, and work. The big-businesses behind the internet and services use their products to pull consumers in as much as they can. These platforms need our attention to gain revenue and they specifically engineer their products to do just that by running our attention span to some capacity, just for clicks and view-time. Odell writes, “It is the invasive logic of commercial social media, and its financial incentive to keep us in a profitable state of anxiety, envy, and distraction” (Odell xii). These sites use literal psychological techniques to attract users and cater the content to each person to keep us coming back, whether it is through ads, suggestions, or posts.
It is the invasive logic of commercial social media, and its financial incentive to keep us in a profitable state of anxiety, envy, and distraction. (Odell xii)
This itself can be harmful to our day-to-day lives because our attention itself is snapped from what we are doing and it can be hard to once again get out of the pull social media and technology has for us. It’s not just the fact of not getting your tasks done, but the fact that it’s concerning that social media almost makes us have less control over what we want to do with our time. This itself is the attention economy. But on the other hand, there are ways to combat the attention economy in ways that will benefit us astronomically in terms of using time more wisely, not being sucked in, and maximizing work and priorities.
One of the main ideas that Jenny Odell seeks to tell readers is the fact that no, we shouldn’t be running away from our phones or technology or social media, because that is nearly impossible, but people should rather learn how to be better for yourself away from technology at certain times to limit the anxiety and stress that these things bring us, and even using some aspects of technology to help us stay focused on what should be. The Attention Economy can be repelled and fought to take initiative of our own time and priorities rather than being distracted day in and day out.
In Jenny Odell’s, “How to do Nothing”, Odell talks of this sort of point a lot, about how the attention economy and commercial social media impacts users. Apps, like Snapchat, use “streaks” to keep people addicted to snapping and keeping their streaks. Most platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, use the comments and likes feature to keep people wanting to post more and spend more time on the app to get recognition, and simply to stay entertained. These things, of course, help the companies get more money.
These days, technology has such an overwhelming impact on this world and it has become almost impossible to escape in a way. Most people need technology for their work, business, school, or just in regular daily life. This can be both a good thing but also harmful at the same time because doing things on your phone can make life easier and more simple with the technology we have, but that technology itself can be distracting and an annoyance to our routine. For me, I definitely find the Attention Economy a problem because I lose focus on what I am doing and I know I could be using my time more wisely especially when now I have tons of school work piling up daily that I have to get to. I find myself at my desk, on my laptop trying to do work and I get one notification and I go on my phone for a minute, but then that turns to 5 to 10 and then 30 minutes, completely losing my focus on my school work.
Today, with the pandemic we have going on, I am still at home doing college from my sisters’ room (because they are not home and their room is big enough to have a desk unlike mine). With that, things becomes worse because everything that is related to my school and work is bound with technology. No worksheets, no in-person classes or meetings, no in-person labs, and no studying in the library. I feel like I have no escape because everything in my life is around me and those things give extra distractions. Things such as my pets, my family, easier access to food, my backyard, and other things are things that you might not even think of as distractions but at home they definitely can make it harder to stay focused on schoolwork. When you’re home doing everything from class meetings, class work, homework, quizzes, tests, and projects, it can be both overwhelming and a blessing. You have all these things you would normally do away from home in school, where it can be easier to learn and focus because that’s where we’ve been doing it our whole lives. But now we have to do it from home and the transition of getting all this work and all in a new format is definitely overwhelming. Now I’m in college, freshman year, online, where the work is so different, we can barely interact with our professors, and everything is new. Take all that and having to do it from home does not make it easier.
Taking everything I said in the last paragraph and connecting it to Odell’s idea of commercial social media, technology, and the attention economy having such a negative effect on our ability to focus, think for ourselves, and be productive, it seems that remote learning can be very difficult to get used to for new college students and any student in general that isn’t used to learning and doing even more work from home.
When you actually use certain ideas that Odell talked much about in her book such as certain levels of digital detoxing, taking more time to think and brainstorm, and appreciating the world around you, you can start to notice things that can help you through these new-found problems and put you on the right path towards the good type of productivity you need. An idea me and my mom had before the school year was to put my workspace in my sisters’ room. Being able to have a new space to do all of my remote schoolwork is something that can aid the oddness of working from home all the time. This space is a little chunk out of the rest of my house that I can use to do my work in a better way. Being home, there is also less distraction in terms of people around me such as friends and classmates. I would be inclined to talk to people rather than doing the classwork at some points and definitely was not a good way to go about using my time wisely. At home, I have more of a clear schedule to get all of my work and assignments done and can force myself to stay on track.
Then, with digital detoxing, it doesn’t mean entirely getting rid of your phone or computer, because in these times, that is just not feasible. It mostly means trying to find a way to fix the issues that technology can have on you. Examples are taking set hours each day where you don’t go near any technology, or using parental controls to block you from using leisurely apps, sites, and games during times where you have to get things done. Odell does this with the app iNaturalist and social media filters that let you use social media to more of your spiritual benefit along with filtering out the impurities many apps have at times. For me, I simply try to put my phone in another room while I do my schoolwork. This gives me less of an urge to pick up my phone and get sucked in by it. Doing this allows me to focus more on my work on hand, with less distraction from my phone and it’s addicting notifications and leisurely apps. Another thing I do is set my weekly schedule of when I have assignments due and plan out when I will get my work done in a timely manner to reduce stress and be efficient with my schoolwork. Another thing to do is setting times throughout your days to use that time away from technology to do that “nothing” Odell references. You can merely sit down with a cup of tea or go on a nature filled walk, and think about what problems you have and how you can healthily resolve them all while observing the environment around you which can lead to even more brainstorming. There are even ways people are using AI to lessen the Attention Economies effects. According to an article from Forbes, companies are using AI to create algorithms that are catered to almost hide the advertisements and ways that people get distracted on social media and the internet. With this, people are not being distracted and pulled in and the big companies are still getting clicks and revenue, a win-win for both sides.
For Jenny Odell, she talks about going upstate for a lecture without doing her priorities of work and social media without her phone. These two days really let her settle her mind in a way that made her think about what she was doing and what should be prioritized. Thinking about what you are actually doing in life is a therapeutic step that many take to detach themselves and let you see multiple perspectives of what is important in your life at the moment. Getting out of the loop of confusion and stress is something that Odell did and tries to tell her readers is something that is very important in the process of working, learning, and being better for yourself. Boredom and stepping away can become a time of creative inspiration and the shifting of your own perspective that Odell frequently talks about. When I am really stuck on an assignment, sitting down outside, or walking around my yard with my dog, are ways that actually help me brainstorm my ideas and clear my head. When I detach myself just a little bit, I find ways that aid me in my schoolwork and priorities.
Eventually, you can see yourself become a better learner and listener when you get back to your priorities and normal routines of doing work. With a clear mind and less stress, it can be easier to do the schoolwork you’ve been longing to do. The change in routine can more quickly and naturally become your normal routine to get things done and do them the best you can. Technology should not be using us, but we the users should be using technology instead, with our own rules. Without the distractions of your phone and other technology, your mind can be free and open to learn, write, explore, and work more efficiently and more controlled. Social media especially finds ways to pull you in for hours at a time, but if you take simple steps to get away from that at times, you can overcome the commercial magnets of technology and social media.
Jenny Odell, and thinkers like her, all will agree that technology has succumbed us to hours of wasted time and distraction but there are ways we can work around it to better ourselves again and prioritize what should be focused on, all while keeping a free mind and fresh perspective on the world around us. A great way Odell puts it is that people should focus more on maintenance of their priorities rather than disruption. With working from home, you can use digital detox methods to overcome the distractions social media and technology have on you as a user. Since students are now working on their computers all day, we can use things such as parental controls, limit/schedule setting, and simply self-control from certain apps and devices at times to escape the distractions the attention economy has made. This gives us more efficient time to focus on doing our priorities, while away from harm of commercial social media.
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