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Jack Pellerito
Marisa Enos
ENG.111.W02
04 March 2017
Attention isn't just a given

Everyday in life people use their brains and focus on certain things. This is called

attention. People pay attention to countless things in life. Whether it be in school, out of school,

in public, at home, attention is a useful thing. However, nowadays there are many problems with

attention. People are losing their attention and it is becoming harder for them to pay attention.

This problem impacts students the most because they have the greatest need for attention. Two

essays shed some light on the reasons behind these attentional issues. Robert Leamnson's essay

"The Biological Basis of Learning and Today's First Year Students" talks about the mental issues

behind the attentional problems. Matthew B. Crawford's essay "Attention as a Cultural Problem"

sheds light on the physical problems with attention. Together, both Leamnson and Crawford

provide a strong argument as to why today's world is the reason behind problems with attention.

Today's world has problems with attention because it thinks multitasking is okay, because it has

created excuses for attention disorders, and because it is socially acceptable to distract people.

One of the main problems with attention is that the brain was built in a certain way to

only truly focus on one thing at a time. There is no such thing as truly multitasking. Maybe one

can quickly focus back and forth between two different tasks, but one cannot truly divide their

attention to two different tasks. For example, if someone is trying to multitask and type a paper

while watching TV, they will never truly be multitasking. They will watch TV for one moment,

then switch to typing their paper. They will then switch their focus back and forth constantly.

This is bad for any project or task because one person cannot remember exactly where they left
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off and they will make more mistakes and it will take twice as long to complete any simple task.

Crawford shows how bad things have gotten in the world by showing we actually multitask at

times to escape the buzz of the real world. "We have developed methods for tuning out

commercial messages, for example by inserting earbuds or burying our faces in our

devices"(Crawford 38). This means that because our attention is so spread in the real world, we

have come to rely on attempting to multitask to get through simple tasks like walking. Leamnson

shows why this can be a problem for our attention. "It is experience and sensory interaction with

the environment that promotes and stabilizes neural connections"(Leamnson 67). So in order for

our brains to truly thrive, we cannot attempt to block out the real world, but because we try to

multitask and pay attention to our devices and the world, we are hurting our brains. The attention

we give to the real world is now much less than if we went about our days paying attention to the

world and not our cell phones, newspapers, etc. Although multitasking isn't real, yet is thought of

as something good, another issue with attention today is that lack of attention has been given an

excuse of being a disorder.

Although many people would argue that ADD and ADHD are actual disorders, there are

just as many who would say there is no true evidence for either. The number of cases of ADD

and ADHD have greatly increased in the past decade. Many people decide to look past this piece

of information and medicate children or adults simply because they are diagnosed with a

disorder. Maybe they are just distracted by the clusters of information in the world today? All the

advertisements and other distractions have greatly increased in the past few years. These might

be the reason that attention is having problems and why so many children are being diagnosed

with a disorder. Crawford explains how the many clusters of distractions in the world can be an

issue. When talking of advertisements and interruptions, Crawford says "such intrusions are
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everywhere"(Crawford 37). He could have simply said these advertisements or these distractions,

but he said intrusions, because that is what they truly are. They intrude on our brains and cause

our attention to be split from one task to something else. Although advertisers think what they

are doing is great, it actually causes problems for those being intruded upon by these

advertisements. For example, "the activity that counts is going to be what goes on in the student's

head, not the teacher's"(Leamnson 70). This means that although the person creating and posting

the advertisement sees no issue with it, it actually takes away from the person's mind that it is

thrown upon. It adds unnecessary clutter to people's minds and because they aren't going to truly

remember or understand the ad, they won't gain anything from it mentally. Because people

become so distracted, they have a hard time paying attention to the things that actually require

their attention. Students struggle in school, and adults struggle in their workplaces. The disorders

of nowadays give them an escape and a way to find their focus. They are put on medications to

help focus, but maybe all they needed was fewer distractions in their lives. This is another large

problem with attention and today's society, however, and the biggest problem of all is that

society accepts these intrusions, interruptions, and distractions.

Everyday people encounter all sorts of distractions and interruptions from their daily

activities. Even in schools there are advertisements and posters posted all over the place. Society

has come to accept these things and has no problem with having cluttered minds and problems in

school. If people would eliminate all the advertisements from their lives and all the devices they

are always on, they could have many less problems with attention. Attention has become so

flawed because society has allowed itself to be infiltrated by distractions and advertisements

even in places and times they should not be allowed. For example, the radio is full of ads. There

is almost as many commercials as there is music. The same goes for TV. People cannot focus on
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what they are trying to listen to or watch because of all the interruptions. If learning is so

important to the world today, why is it allowed to be interrupted? All the cluttering things should

be eliminated so as to increase learning in the best way possible. Leamnson explains how

learning can be negatively affects by all these distractions when he says "that learning can be

externally encouraged, but only internally initiated"(Leamnson 71). How can learning occur if it

has to be initiated internally and all these socially acceptable distractions are cluttering

everyone's brains? Learning needs to start inside the person. It has to be wanted. It also has to

have the learner pay attention to what they are trying to learn. They cannot learn if they cannot

pay attention so we see a double negative here. These ads clutter the brain, which stops learning,

but they also take attention away from the thing attempting to be learned, which further

decreases learning. An important quote from Crawford perfectly describes society's issue.

Crawford says that "our mental fragmentation can't simply be attributed to advertising, the

Internet, or any other identifiable villain, for it has become something more comprehensive than

that, something like a style of existence"(Crawford 39). People have come to live in this way.

They accept all the distractions and even often enjoy them. This is why attention has so many

problems nowadays. It isn't simply because of the distractions, but because we have come to

accept and live by them. They are a part of people's lives now. Some people cannot even walk

down the street without having to be on their phone. Others have to always be reading a

newspaper or listening to music. People accept all of these things and have no issues with people

who cannot pay attention to the things that require attention. Maybe if society wasn't so

accepting of these issues with attention, we wouldn't have as many issues.

Overall, Leamnson and Crawford shed light on the many issues with attention. We find

that attention isn't simply something everyone can take part in without issue. Leamnson's "The
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Biological Basis of Learning and Today's First Year Students" sheds light on the mental issues

behind attention while Crawford's "Attention as a Cultural Problem" sheds light on the issues

taking place in the real world. Together they create the complete picture on why today's society

has so many problems with attention. Whether it be because people think multitasking is okay,

because society has given those with attention issues an easy way out, or because society has

come to accept all the distractions, there are many problems with attention. In order to fix these

problems Leamnson and Crawford would both agree it has to be something involving

eliminating many of the distractions. Leamnson would say this would simply cause a clearer

brain and more attention while Crawford would say there would be less for the person to focus

on so therefore more attention going to where it should. Attention has issues, but these issues do

have solutions.
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Works Cited

Leamnson, Robert. "The Biological Basis of Learning and Today's First Year Students".

Exploring Connections: Learning in the 21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 65-85

Crawford, Matthew. "Attention as a Cultural Problem". Exploring Connections: Learning in the

21st Century. Pearson Education Inc., 2016. Pp. 36-48