Today, I can get easily distracted, for example when I set out to tackle a domestic chore and navigate to the computer, or even my tablet, checking Facebook or any number of things. Or when I am trying to sort out old photos, discarding most because why keep them? I find I can begin to browse, thinking about when this or that happened. Pretty soon hours have gone by and I have accomplished little outside my head. This was supposed to be a project for me this winter when we did not snowbird, I would sort out the room wide mess I have downstairs to discard old photos. I have made very minimal progress. Fortunately this room is downstairs and not needed so not used and that allows me to keep the mess out. I used to search for photos for something on Ancestry, to post or whatever so I began to just leave them spread out, why have to pack away and unpack. So there is the mess.
Just today I was catching up waiting for a load of laundry to finish and went on to reading on the Elderly Blog,
http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2016/04/crabby-old-lady-and-the-internet-of-junk.html
There was a comment about attention spans growing shorter, that a gold fish has a longer attention span. Wow! One of my bosses once told me I had the attention span of a cocker spaniel, which had me bust out in laughter, but he was right. It served me well in career days, multi tasking worked to my benefit then. Not so much today, I start and can wander off elsewhere especially if the task I began is not appealing to me. Here's the blog writer's comments:
"The Telegraph reported earlier this year:
"According to scientists, the age of
smartphones has left humans with such a short attention span even a goldfish
can hold a thought for longer.
"Researchers surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms.
"The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds.
"Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds."
Did
you get that? Goldfish for god's sake""Researchers surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms.
"The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds.
"Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds."
Reading this statistic and relating because I enjoy using my smart phone or tablet and posting fast to Facebook, I could see trouble ahead. For someone like me, with a life history of attention span shortages, what is next?
reading this it seemed like it could have been myself posting. I too get sidetracked from completing certain tasks and photo organizing is a big one for me as well. I have so many photo CDs which need to be culled through and only the best images saved to a portable hard drive. And, we won't talk abut the photos which need to be placed in albums. Yet some days I can get through several tasks with ease and without distractions...go figure.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is another mystery of life, At least I gave up the thought that I would put the photos into albums, scrapbooks, etc. As I posted, "what for, " It would merely be another more organized thing to toss later.
DeleteBy the way, I am fidgety too, and always getting up and down and running back and forth doing things. Years ago I read that people who do that are more likely to be thin, as this uses up oodles of calories. Nice side benefit. So let's embrace our fidgets :)
ReplyDelete