How I learned to stop punishing my Attention Span

With the rise of social media in all its impressive and yet terrifying forms, our attention spans are dying - an endangered species, on par with the rhino and leopard. When I look at the world around me and my own developing habits, it doesn’t look too good for our attention spans.

No matter where you are in the world, you can feel the pull of our buzzing society. For we live in a world where it is not enough to merely live in it, we must be immersed. Constantly stimulated, always on, and never quiet.

Even living in a small town in Mexico, I can feel that pull, that craving, to be stimulated by that buzz. That easy buzz that requires no thinking, no action, just a finger swiping across a screen, from one cat video to another.

When I decided to settle in Mexico and stop traveling from place to place. My attention span was at an all-time low. That constant stimulation of being in motion, discovering new places, and meeting new people had killed my attention span. I found myself craving that same feeling. And the easiest way to find it was through my phone.  My ADHD mind would spend hours flatlining as I fed my addiction with 3-second videos that I can’t remember.

I hated it, I would be locked on my phone, and yet my mind would be spiralling. Screaming to be released but paralyzed into staying. I would feel disgusting and dirty every time I broke away. And 30 minutes later, I would find myself back on it, with no knowledge of how I got there. I was addicted, and my attention span was being punished for it.

Something had to be done. My life didn’t feel like my own anymore; I felt trapped by a piece of technology that should be improving my life, not destroying it.

I put in all the stops, timers, and blockers like OneSec. And it worked, eventually. I reduced my internet scrolling. And consequently, I now had all this time and space, but no idea how to fill it. My ADHD paralysis didn’t go away; it just shifted. Because turning off the phone isn’t enough. We can’t live without stimulation, but it is a question of what kind.

That form of stimulation we get from the phone is a filler; it doesn’t add or give. It just takes up time. But the stimulation I felt from traveling, my mind and body were completely connected, working together to explore, adventure, and at the end of the day, survive.

Obviously, we can’t all travel all the time. But what we can do is adopt that feeling. Why did I feel so positively stimulated while traveling? Was it the buzz of being constantly stimulated, or was it the feeling of being distracted from day-to-day life? No, it was because I was doing it with love. It is something that I could talk about for hours and do for a lifetime. It is not something that takes from my life but rather, gives.  

Our attention spans may always struggle to adapt to the demanding world we live in. But what we can do is stop punishing them for it. And instead fill our time with things that bring us joy, not things that pass the time. To stimulate ourselves with play, not fillers. Instead of a video that takes our attention, do an activity that occupies our minds, activates our bodies, and brings joy to our souls.