Technology

55744 readers

4375 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

257

The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety. (www.nature.com)

submitted 3 months ago by boem to c/technology

59 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] FireRetardant 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

So does shortened attention spans not count as any type of brain development change or is that not actually happening/outside of this study?

[–] dumpsterlid 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Even though everybody seems convinced our attention spans have decreased, there is no conclusive evidence of it and scientists don’t even really think it is useful to talk about attention outside the context of motivation anyways.

Your attention span is fine, you are just too burned out from modern life to invest energy into things that take a lot of sustained focus that aren’t essential to survival.

You also have to be way more picky with what content you choose to engage with because there is sooooooo much more content now and that may look like a “short attention span” when your brain optimizes for tossing out the 95% off fluff to get right to the thing you actually wanted.

Our attention spans are fine, this has been the most boring moral panic ever but that is really all it is.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Shortened attention span falls under mental well-being.

The older generation has always criticized the younger generation for the same things. And yet again it is done without merit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

This isn't a study, it's a book review refuting the author's assertion. But it looks like the scope was only mental health, not cognitive skill.