Thank you, Chloe, for your precious reflections! I second every word of it!

The advantages that technology and AI bring about are now idolised by numerous people because they reduce people’s workload and give them more time to enjoy their lives, which are the two valuable things that most people wish for in the hustle and bustle of daily life. Some people use them as the winners as they can control machines. Others, including me, are scared of the day machines control this life and people become useless. In my opinion, the 2 things that help people dominate this world are their brains and their feelings. If people continue to allow technology to “think” for them, they will lose the only strength that controls the world. If people don’t use their brain to think and their heart to feel, they will lose their identities as the unique individuals in the world. Therefore, to maintain our identities, not only do we need to keep ourselves from the distraction of technical devices, but we also need to live without the dependence on technology. This not only applies to work or study but also applies to every single thing happening in life.

We were born with different identities and we need to devote ourselves to life in different ways. If everyone uses technology for everything in life, the marks of humanity of this world will forever fade.

What you describe is called “digital dementia” 🙁

I could not agree more with this statement: “I’m still happy that I have lived my childhood without 24/7 internet availability”.
When I think about reading, our ability to read and to engage deeply with texts has changed drastically since the arrival of the internet. I have realised that the more online short news stories I read in a day, the less I am able to remember specific details from the story. When I report on a news story I have read earlier to my partner for example, I find myself struggling to recall crucial pieces of information at times such as numbers, dates, etc. As a result, I have most likely communicated inaccurate facts and on top of that, I do not believe that skimming through a multitude of texts on various topics daily helps me improve my memory.

Hi, Lynn. Thank you for your comment. I just watched the video. That is a simple but huge impact!
I think people nowadays can easily become addicted to their devices and therefore have less time for basic and important things like family conversations. Even in this article, students including me often think of multitasking as something advanced such as multi-purpose cleaners or multiplayer in football… Before I read this article, I was one who believed that multitasking helps with learning, so the experiment in the article above is valuable. I would like to use this article for my English reading lesson when I get back to school.
I think as technology advances, paradoxically, the basics become more important. This also reminds me of the Matthew effect that we learned. I think it is the most basic duty of teachers in schools to help students recognize this problem and educate students from an early age.

Hi Siyao, thank you for sharing your interesting tips.
I’m also easily distracted even unconsciously by others’ phone notifications. Therefore, finding a way to keep myself out of distraction is always a must for me. I really like your idea of learning in the library. How amazing it is! I think that when others are studying and working so hard with 100% concentration in the library, it’s quite embarrassing if I use my phone to watch videos on Youtube or keep scrolling Facebook feed. I think that we’re all partly influenced by our surroundings, so when we see others stay focused, we cannot allow ourselves to get distracted. Learning with peers is also a good way to reduce distraction, I believe. When we are in close interaction, we can see how our distraction can affect the productivity of others and we definitely don’t want it to happen. Therefore, it’s great to work with someone and allow ourselves less time for personal activities when we want to stay focused.
Thank you again for sharing. It really works for me 🙂

Thanks for sharing your comments with us. Using libraries to study certainly seems like a great way to stay focused. What I found interesting was your point about other students in the library motivating you to focus, as I have experienced that studying techniques like body-doubling or having accountability partners help to a great extent.
There are also other methods of exercising self-regulation. However, the trick is to try different techniques and see what works best for you! You could try keeping your phone in a different room for a dedicated period of time. Alternatively, you could turn off all notifications or keep your phone in Do-not-disturb mode.
Deleting social media apps from your phone or in extreme cases deleting your social media profiles itself can be worth exploring. You could also use a “dumb phone” or an alternate phone without social media and apps that could steal your attention. I hope you find this useful! Good luck.

Thank you for comment, Siyao. I didn’t know that you are the easily distracted one similarly to me. I completely understand and sympathise with your points. In my original comment, I talked about one specific solution not to be distracted by digital devices, which is to turn on the flight mode. In my case, I am not able to delete all the software and apps as I need those to do my work. However, your another two suggestions are far more interesting, which are to study in places with the right environment to focus, and to control ourselves to keep our concentration.

Last week, we went to the library as an excursion class and those librarians we met told us that most of the students came to library to study because of a unique atmosphere to focus on and me, too. Even if it is not necessarily a library, there are some alternatives where is able to contribute to creating a good atmosphere. Regarding self-control, I have a bit of a different opinion. Even though we are trying to control ourselves, it is difficult to focus on only one task without being distracted, especially for this digital generation. In the bottom-line, I would like to say that we should learn how to put ourselves in good atmosphere to concentrate rather than believe and control ourselves.

Hi Logan, thanks for your comment. It made me think of a video I watched on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/reel/197375386635148). If you have time, you can watch it if you like. I promise it is worth it for you to watch. When I was surfing this social media and letting my son play in his playpen, I caught this video, and after watching it, I contemplated whether social media was good or bad and how we could use it appropriately. As you see in the video, time flies; those things attract us, and we forget what is really important to us. After reading the blog about multitasking, we all have a reason to spend time, slowly perceive, look back at what we have done and decide to improve it. Let’s make things better for us; don’t let things make us worse.

Dr. Piller, Thanks for your response. By “unavoidable” I believe in my mind I was trying to say that I haven’t developed strategies to avoid the distracting aspects of multitasking. Your recommendations defiantly works, but how could you resist the temptation of checking your online accounts, especially when you are heavily engaged on social media. Regarding Napoleon, I was just using him as an example but defiantly not as a role model. But I believe we still would be able to learn something good from tyrants while in the same time, not following their steps and ideologies.

Thanks, Jhonny! Isn’t it ironic that the solution to our collective concentration problems is supposedly to watch even more videos that teach us how to concentrate? 😉

Thanks, Siyao! I really like your suggestion to study in the library – creating a good atmosphere and an environment that aides concentration is so important!

Hi Saraf, a break after 2 hours of studying seems perfectly reasonable to me – you’ll come back refreshed 🙂

Thanks, Logan! The “rewards” of likes, and responses, and follower numbers, etc. are really pernicious, as you say. In truth, it’s a form of conditioning (like Pavlov’s dogs or Skinner’s pigeons) 🙁

Thank you very much for your wonderful article. I always thought that electronic devices were helpful for our learning before reading this article, but now I do realize that the multitasking function of devices can easily affect people’s concentration.

I am an easily distracted person, so I may not have a good way to stay focused when using electronic devices. I usually have to turn off the mobile phone network before I decide to study and turn it on again when I need to search for information, so as not to be disturbed by messages from social apps and news from other apps, or turn the phone to silent mode if there are important things on the day. As my laptop does not have much software installed, it is defined by me as a learning tool. I am not affected by it, even if the network is open. Secondly, I think it is also a good way to study with peers and supervise each other, such as going to the library. The library has a good learning atmosphere, and most students are studying. I believe everyone is too embarrassed to chat and watch videos on their devices there. Finally, I think that concentration importantly depends on a person’s self-control, that is, her determination to accomplish something. If the thing is important or interesting to her, she will not be easily affected by devices. This is a good question, which provides me a chance to find some effective ways to improve my concentration from the comments of other classmates.