
November 30, 2020
#226 — The Price of Distraction | Adam Gazzaley on Making Sense with Sam Harris
Check out the Making Sense Podcast Page & Episode Notes
Key Takeaways
- “We are constantly fragmenting our limited attentional focus with both external and internal distractions and multiple tasks, and there’s cost to this” Adam Gazzaley
- We are usually not aware of the switching costs of diverting our attention away and then bringing it back
- The abundance of available information creates a strong fear of missing out, which causes us to continuously switch to new websites, articles, etc.
- Easily available information also severely decreased our tolerance for boredom
- When in line at the grocery, even for a minute, we feel the need to intake more information
- Easily available information also severely decreased our tolerance for boredom
- Ways to improve focus
- Limit accessibility of distractions in your environment
- Consciously practicing single-tasking and sustained attention
- Take healthy “breaks” before going back to your task
- As an attention-training practice, meditation is a great way to improve our ability to focus
- The brain has the capacity to modify itself at every level in response to experiences
- “You’re making yourself based on what you’re doing with your attention” Sam Harris
- Technology is harming our attention, but it can also help us improve it
- The idea of “Digital Medicine” – Technologies that help us improve the functions of our brains
Key Products Mentioned
Intro
- Adam Gazzaley M.D., Ph.D. (@adamgazz) is a Professor in Neurology, Physiology, and Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, and the Founding Director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center, Neuroscape Lab, and the Gazzaley Lab
- Check out Adam’s website
- Host: Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg)
- In this chat, Adam and Sam discuss ways in which technology is changing us and what we can do to protect and improve our focus
Information Overload
- Humans are information-seeking creatures
- Evolutionarily we thrived due to our brains’ capacity to process complex information
- But we don’t have unlimited information-processing capacity
- “Information is key to how we survive and thrive, but there’s a breaking point and all sorts of consequences” Adam Gazzaley
- If the information-processing system is overloaded it breaks
Can We Multi-Task?
- The term “multi-tasking” is confusing
- We all feel capable of doing different tasks at the same time
- We’re drawn to it and we feel we can get better at it
- In reality, our brain is not able to “parallel process” two demanding tasks at once
- Brain scans show that while multi-tasking, we continuously shift attention from one task to the other
- If one of the tasks does not require attention, then we can do more than one thing
- For example, driving is mostly unconscious so we can listen to a podcast in the meantime
- If all of a sudden driving demands our full attention, our brain will stop paying attention to the podcast
Bottom-up and Top-down Attention
- Human attention can be divided into two alternating forces
- Bottom-up Attention
- Activated by “external” stimuli (loud sounds, flashes of lights, your name, etc.)
- This is an ancient part of our attention system, critical for our (and any animal’s) survival
- Activated by “external” stimuli (loud sounds, flashes of lights, your name, etc.)
- Top-down Attention (Goal-directed)
- You make a conscious decision to direct attention towards something
How our Top-down Attention Gets Disrupted
- Today, we are incapable to sustain our attention for a long time
- In addition to external stimuli distracting us, we also do it ourselves
- Three different ways we get distracted
- External bottom-up stimuli pull our attention (phone vibrating)
- Tech companies are aware of this and use it to direct our attention to our devices
- There are also internal bottom-up stimuli (body pain or stomach rumbles)
- We also (consciously or subconsciously) divert our top-down attention to different things
- Emotions such as anxiety and boredom drive us to look for new stimuli
- External bottom-up stimuli pull our attention (phone vibrating)
- “We are constantly fragmenting our limited attentional focus with both external and internal distractions and multiple tasks, and there’s cost to this” Adam Gazzaley
- We are usually not aware of the switching costs of diverting our attention away and then bringing it back
- Every time we switch:
- We lose time as we have to remember where we were in our task
- There’s an emotional cost, as we get stuck in a loop of increasing anxiety
Information Foraging and Boredom
- Adam compares how humans look for information to the way animals forage food
- Once a squirrel has foraged 50% of the nuts in a tree, he will decide whether to continue foraging in the tree or jump to a new one
- If there are many trees available nearby he will be strongly tempted to continuously jump to new trees
- In the same way, now, humans are capable to easily acquire new information all the time
- This creates a strong fear of missing out, which causes us to continuously switch to new websites, articles, etc.
- On one level, the overabundance of information has almost eliminated boredom
- We have access to so much information and entertainment
- There is no friction to consuming more content
- However, we easily feel bored as our tolerance for boredom declines
- As soon as we finish consuming, we immediately want new content
- When in line at a grocery store, even for a minute, we feel the need to intake more information
- We can practice getting familiar and becoming more tolerant of boredom
- We all have moments throughout the day in which we are forced to stop (in line at the grocery store or at a traffic light)
- We can observe the onset of boredom and the urge to pick up the phone
- We all have moments throughout the day in which we are forced to stop (in line at the grocery store or at a traffic light)
How to Live More Focused Lives?
- Once you see the pressures that make you distracted, you have the framework to reverse that habit and become more focused
- Limit accessibility of distractions in your environment
- For example, close Slack or distracting browser tabs while working, to make them less accessible
- Consciously practicing single-tasking and sustained attention
- Start with short periods of time
- Feel and understand the boredom and anxiety that come up
- Take healthy “breaks” before going back to your task
- Avoid social media
- Do some light stretches
- Meditate
- Look at Nature
- At first, it will be difficult, but with time it becomes enjoyable to practice sustained attention
- As an attention-training practice, meditation is a great way to improve our ability to focus
Neuroplasticity, Technology and Meditation
- The brain has the capacity to modify itself at every level in response to experiences
- This phenomenon is known as “Neuroplasticity”, which is the key to learning
- Neuroplasticity doesn’t stop in adulthood
- This phenomenon is known as “Neuroplasticity”, which is the key to learning
- “What you do with your brain winds up physically changing your brain” Sam Harris
- People are often surprised when hearing claims that meditation can physically change the brain
- In reality, everything we do changes our brain
- For this reason, it is even more important to be careful about what we pay attention to
- “You’re making yourself based on what you’re doing with your attention” Sam Harris
- Technology is harming our attention, but it can also help us improve it
- Idea of “Digital Medicine” – Technologies that help us improve the functions of our brains
- If we challenge the brain in a targeted way and align reward systems appropriately, we can optimize neural systems
- Meditation is a perfect, ancient example of this
- Similar experiences can be delivered digitally