Attention!

May 7th, 2022| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

“What is happening to kids’ brains?” asked a Wall Street Journal article recently. Most kids apparently can’t sit through feature-length films and have trouble focusing on homework or reading a book.

Dr. Carl Marci, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston:

It is hard to look at increasing trends in media consumption of all types, media multitasking and rates of ADHD in young people and not conclude that there is a decrease in their attention span.”

With 15-second TikToks, even YouTube clips seem long and boring. Yup, children are distracted.

Julie Jargon, the author of the WSJ article:

Emerging research suggests that watching short, fast-paced videos makes it harder for kids to sustain activities that don’t offer instant—and constant—gratification.”

TikTok is characterized by the “recommender system,” which makes recommendations to a user by predicting his/her interest. This, apparently, has been the key factor in its worldwide popularity: it is the most-downloaded app with 738 million downloads in 2019, and total downloads over 1.5 billion. The powerful recommender systems of TikTok can predict each user’s interest and suggest personalized videos based on previous browsing records and tagged videos.

“Viewing Personalized Video Cips Recommended by TikTok Activates Default Mode Network and Ventral Tegmental Area,” published in Neuroimage by Chinese researchers from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, found that the personalized videos that TikTok’s recommendation engine shows activate users’ brain reward centers, as compared with the general-interest videos shown to new users. It also found some people have trouble controlling when to stop watching.

The negative relationship between TikTok usage and self-control indicated the problematic behavior associated with TikTok use linked to the lack of self-control …. We speculate that individuals with lower self-control ability have more difficulty shifting attention away from favorite video stimulation.”

Directed attention starts in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, responsible for decision making and impulse control.

Michael Manos, the clinical director of the Center for Attention and Learning at Cleveland Clinic Children’s:

Directed attention is the ability to inhibit distractions and sustain attention and to shift attention appropriately. It requires higher-order skills like planning and prioritizing.”

Kids have a harder time with that stuff, seeing that the prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed till the mid-twenties.

Dr. Manos:

If kids’ brains become accustomed to constant changes, the brain finds it difficult to adapt to a nondigital activity where things don’t move quite as fast.”

Mass General’s Dr. Marci:

In the short-form snackable world, you’re getting quick hit after quick hit, and as soon as it’s over, you have to make a choice. The more developed the prefrontal cortex, the better the choices.”

The dopamine rush of endless short videos makes it hard for young viewers to switch their focus to slower-moving activities. Kids are now living in a candy store!

Said another commentator:

We have an endless flow of immediate pleasures that’s unprecedented in human history.”

Dr. John Hutton, a pediatrician and director of the Reading & Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital:

TikTok is a dopamine machine. If you want kids to pay attention, they need to practice paying attention.”

So what are we to give attention to?

“Give attention to yourself and keep your soul diligently.”
Deuteronomy 4:9

“Give attention to yourself, that you do not forget Yahweh.”
Deuteronomy 6:12

“Give attention to yourself that you do not forget Yahweh your God
by not keeping His commandments.”
Deuteronomy 8:11

“Give attention to yourselves that your hearts are not deceived,
and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them.”
Deuteronomy 11:16

SOURCE:
Wall Street Journal; Neuroimage