Distraction is something that most people, if not everyone, experience at times, depending on the activity they are performing. Whether it’s physical activities like exercising or mentally meditating, these moments happen fairly frequently in life. For example, imagine yourself playing a baseball game with your friends and then suddenly, you hear a beep from your phone. You’re then not focused on the activity as much or at all because of that notification. In other words, you could easily get distracted reading some form of art, even if you’re just reading it for a little while. That’s where boredom comes into play, and let me tell you, it’s a way deeper idea of thinking. 

Distraction Followed by Redistribution

I’ve recently been conducting in-depth research on this topic, continuing to read “Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari, as well as exploring angles from other pieces. One of the ways this book supports the concept of boredom stemming from media distraction involves a compelling, anecdotal story about a young woman whom Hari refers to at a bookstore. This woman may be wise, but she gets easily distracted after reading the first chapter of a book. The reason behind this issue is a broader societal shift away from reading deeply into something completely different, thus resulting in boredom. I highly recommend reading about this scene in Chapter 4 of the book to gain a deeper understanding of how it unfolds. 

Now, as if that’s not interesting enough, just by doing even more research, I’ve discovered that the information or specific aspects of what you’re looking at is more problematic than the general idea of being able to focus. This week, I came across an article by Daniel Immerwahr of The New Yorker, in which the author references concerns about people being distracted for a long time and argues that the problem with attention may be overblown. What this means is that rather than attention simply going away from people, it’s redistributed. The redistribution can test everyone’s core values. I honestly never considered that. As someone who actually has attention deficit, I’ve always thought that losing focus on something had little or nothing to do with redistribution. That’s because I would look at the issue from a non-deep perspective and believe that I’ve simply lost interest, and I’ll just move on to the next thing. Right now, however, it’s something way more than that. 

As I continue to process everything I’ve seen and read, I believe it all does make sense. When it comes to boredom from media and art, I now have a better understanding of how everything processes, starting from distraction. I can see the societal shifts in other directions after reading something for a short time. Additionally, instead of considering a general perspective on losing focus, I think I could begin to delve deeper into why I lost attention on a particular thing. I must also say that I’m glad it’s not just me who has noticed this topic in daily life. Instead of it being “me against the world,” it’s actually “me and everyone else as a team.”