That the Internet is doing to our attention: the habit of distractions

One evening in early summer, I opened the book and found that I re-read a paragraph over and over half a dozen times, until he came to a disappointing conclusion that continuing would be useless. I simply could not focus.

I was shocked. All my life reading books was for me a source of great pleasure, calm and knowledge. Now a pile of books that I regularly purchase, rising higher and higher on the bedside table, looking at me with a mute reproach.

Instead of reading books, I spent too much time online: check, how the traffic to the website of my company, bought colored socks in Gilt and Rue La La (although I so they are more than enough), and sometimes, I confess, view photos in articles with enticing headings such as "Clumsy children of the stars who have grown and become beautiful. "

Over I checked the working day mail more often than necessary, and spent more time than in previous years, eagerly searching the latest information on the presidential campaign.

We willingly reconciled to loss of concentration and attention, fragmentation of thought in exchange for an abundance of intriguing or at least entertaining information.

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Nicholas Carr (Nicholas Carr), author of "Dummy. That the Internet is doing to our brains'

Dependence - a relentless craving for a substance or action, which eventually becomes so intrusive that hinders everyday life. By this definition, nearly everyone I know to some extent dependent on the Internet. It can be argued that the Network is one of the forms of socially permissible addiction.

According to a recent opinion poll, the average office worker spends about 6 hours a day on e-mail. In this case, there is not even taken into account all time spent online, such as shopping, searching for information or communication in social networks.

The addiction of our brain for innovation, constant stimulation and smooth reception of pleasure leads to compulsive cycles. How to laboratory rats and drug addicts, we need more and more to achieve pleasure.

I learned this a long time ago. I started writing about it 20 years ago. I attribute this to its customers every day. But I could never even imagine that this touches me personally.

Negation - one more sign of the presence of dependence. There is no greater obstacle to healing than an infinite desire logically justify their compulsive, uncontrolled behavior. I've always been able to control their emotions. But I traveled a lot last winter, at the same time trying to manage a growing business in the field of consulting. In early summer, I suddenly realized that I was no longer in control of himself as good as before.

In addition to long-term spending time on the Internet and reduce the stability of attention, I noticed that he no longer eat right. I drank a soda out of all proportion. Too often, I drank in the evening for a couple of alcoholic drinks. I stopped doing the exercises every day, but doing it all his life.

Influenced by this, I was incredibly ambitious plan. Over the next 30 days I had to make an attempt to send these bad habits in the right direction, one after the other. It was a huge rush. Its customers every day I strictly recommend the opposite approach. But I realized that all these habits are associated with each other. And I can get rid of them.

The main problem is that we humans have a very limited supply of will and discipline. We will have a better chance of success if we try to change one habit at a time. Ideally, new action needs to be repeated at the same time each day so that it becomes familiar and require less and less energy to maintain.

I had some success in 30 days. Despite the great temptation, I quit drinking alcohol and soda (since it took three months, and soda and did not return to my diet). I gave up sugar and fast carbohydrates like chips and pasta. I again began to regularly do the exercises.

I totally fell in only one: to spend less time on the Internet.

To limit the time spent online, I set a goal to check mail only 3 times a day: when I wake up, during lunch and when I come home at the end of the day. The first day I stayed a few hours after the morning inspection, and then completely broke down. I was as a dependent on sugar, which is trying to resist the temptation to eat the cake, working in a bakery.

The first morning my determination broke the feeling that I definitely need to send a letter to someone on an urgent matter. "If I just write it and press" Send "- I said to myself, - it would be impossible to consider the time spent on the Internet."

I did not take into account that, while I was going to write your own letter, comes a few new to my email. None of them did not require an immediate response, but it was impossible to resist the temptation to look what is written in the first message with the enticing theme of writing. And in the second. And in the third.

Within seconds I was back in a vicious circle. The next day I gave up trying to limit their lives online. Instead, I began to resist the more simple things: soda, alcohol and sugar.

Nevertheless, I decided to go back later again to the problem of the Internet. A few weeks after the end of my 30-day experiment, I went out of town for a month holiday. It was a great opportunity to focus their limited willpower on one goal: to free themselves from the internet and take back control of their attention.

I've already taken the first step to recovery: recognized their inability to completely disconnect from the Internet. Now is the time of purification. I'm on to interpret the traditional second step - to believe that a higher power to help me recover common sense. Higher power was my 30-year-old daughter, who turned off the email and the internet on my phone and laptop. Neobremenonny more knowledge in this area, I just did not know how to connect them back.

But I remained in touch by SMS. Looking back, I can say that I relied too much on the internet. Only a small number of people in my life to communicate with me via SMS. Since I was on vacation, they were mostly members of my family, and the messages were usually about where we meet throughout the day.

I felt flour because of the limitation, and thus were more hungry the next few days GoogleWhen he wanted to find the answer to the question has arisen suddenly. But after a few days offline, I felt more relaxed, less disturbing, it is better able to focus and no longer miss a moment, but short-lived stimulation. With my brain was exactly what I was hoping was going to happen and he began to calm down.

I took a vacation in more than a dozen books, different in complexity and volume. I began with a small length of nonfikshena, and when he felt calm and focused, began to move to a bulk of scientific and popular literature. In the end I came to the book "King of all diseases. Biography of Cancer "of the American oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee (Siddhartha Mukherjee). Prior to that held the book on my bookshelf is almost five years.

When a week passed, I was able to get rid of their need for evidence as a source of pleasure. I went to novels and ended their vacation avidly reading the 500-page novel "Purity" by Jonathan Franzen (Jonathan Franzen), sometimes without stopping for a few hours.

I went back to work and, of course, is back online. Internet is still here, and it will continue to consume a significant portion of my attention. My goal now - to find a balance between the time spent with the Internet, and the time without him.

I had a feeling that I can control it. I'm less react to stimuli and more planning how to spend their attention. When I'm online, I try not to surf the Web without thinking. As often as possible, I ask myself: "Is this really what I wanted to do?" If the answer is negative, I ask the following questions: "What can I do to feel more productive, satisfied or relaxed? "

I use this approach in your business to fully focus their attention on the important matters. In addition, I continue to read the book, but not just because I like them, but also to keep the attention.

I have a longtime ritual: taking on the eve of the decision on what the most important thing I can do the next morning. This is the first thing, which I do almost every day, from 60 to 90 minutes without interruption. After that, I'm taking a break for 10-15 minutes to relax and replenish energy.

If during the day I have one more thing that requires your full attention, at the time of his execution I go offline. In the evening, when I go into the bedroom, I always leave everything Soup in the other room.

Finally, now I think it is necessary at least once a year to take leave without digital devices. I can afford to take a few weeks off, but in his experience that even one week without the Internet is sufficient for deep recovery.

Sometimes I find myself thinking about the last day of their vacation. I was sitting in a restaurant with my family, when there went a man of about forty with a small charming daughter 4-5 years.

Almost immediately a man buried in your smartphone. Meanwhile, his daughter was just a whirlwind of energy and restlessness: she got up on a chair, walked around the table, waving his hands and faces built - did everything to attract attention my father.

Apart from short moments of success in that it has not reached, and after some time, threw these sad attempt. The silence was deafening.