“We are living in a serious attention crisis – one with huge implications for how we live.” These words from Johann Hari have immense personal significance for me leading into the beginning of the school year. Similar to most beginnings of the school year, I found myself in a familiar routine––procrastinating homework and consequently, getting rather sleep-deprived. Looking back, it was horrific how quickly the negative routine reappeared. I found myself regressing towards poor sleep and study habits within mere days of school’s beginning. As a member of the senior class and a high school veteran, I am wary of how this routine can foster a habit––shaping the high school experience. If you ask a fellow senior, you may learn that I have grown rather infamous. Whether it was the advertisement project in junior year, or literally every single math write-up I have ever completed, the successes of my procrastination are legendary and often represent a sore subject for my classmates. However, throughout the various successful close calls, I found a stark decrease in the quality of my life. The consistent lack of sleep coupled with countless adrenaline-fueled nights led to chronic exhaustion, and at its worst, progressed into depression. While a sensible idea, the remedy is complex. 

Entering my final year of high school, I confronted the obvious culprit: digital distractions, in particular, social media. During the summer, I discovered that I averaged hours of social media usage per day with little to no consequence. However, throughout this period, my capacity to focus weakened due to a lack of maintenance. When school started, the demands of the school year exceeded my capacity to focus, leading to that dreaded procrastination. On a website aptly named “Solving Procrastination,” they note that “[Procrastination] is particularly likely to occur once people establish a strong association between some prevalent cue (e.g., feeling bored or opening their phone) and engaging with social media, so encountering the cue throughout the day repeatedly acts as a trigger for them to go on social media.” After succumbing to these cues and suffering from the “procrastinate now, panic later” mentality for the past three years, I decided to finally face this crippling routine at the source: resisting the urges of digital distractions.

There are various techniques to put an end to procrastination, ranging from digital destimulation (a detox), to simply putting your devices in other areas when doing work.

Consider this article as a review. I’ll explore various simple methods to resist the compulsions of social media, in hopes that one works for you.

Method 1, the “Nice and Easy” Technique:

For those who can resist the urges of social media naturally, I recommend this technique. The essence of this technique is the gradual progression of resisting digital stimuli, and it is the most popular method according to the Harvard Medical School’s newspaper. I experimented with this method by cutting out social media on weekends initially, then progressing to weeklong social media vacations. The goal of this technique is to gradually accrue a capacity to focus––similar to training for a marathon.  

However, this method has a critical shortcoming: It fails in extreme cases. If you have low to moderate difficulty focusing on schoolwork, this method works well. It features an adequate degree of destimulation––a minimum capacity to maintain your resistance to digital distractions. Some students such as senior Will Cunningham find that simply avoiding digital distractions for hours is sufficient, disclosing that “when I work, I set my phone aside and turn off the TV.” When doing so, Will mentioned that he never feels an urge to access digital distractors until his work is complete. Yet, for those who are less gifted in the discipline department, or even nigh hopeless souls such as myself, this method doesn’t really cut it. Instead, I displaced my attention towards other distractions. I deleted Instagram, Snapchat, Strava, and Netflix only for a rapid increase in time spent playing chess. Even after every app was deleted and every tab closed, I would find a way. I was addicted, and gradual restriction was powerless as a solution.

Method 2, Quick and Dirty Technique:

Somewhat less popular, the “Quick and Dirty ” method refers to complete destimulation, essentially boring yourself to death for a week. I drew inspiration from Chris Bailey, author of the book Hyperfocus. Bailey reinforces the idea that “[The issue with inability to focus is] not that we're distracted; it's that our brains are overstimulated.” The “Quick and Dirty” approach revolves around this concept. While the “Nice and Easy” approach deals with distractions, the “Quick and Dirty” method directs itself to confront the root of the problem: overstimulation. If you become reliant upon the dopamine that gets released when interacting with digital entertainment, it can lead to addiction and can negatively impact your ability to get homework done and get adequate sleep. Take for instance senior Jaiden Handlon, who revealed that “last Wednesday, I was able to go to bed at 10:30 because I got my homework done, and I played SimCity until 1:30.” The only solution to overstimulation is to attempt the “Quick and Dirty” method––utter boredom. 

I experimented with this method by attempting to read my mother’s internal medicine textbook, an excruciating experience. After an hour I reached an epiphany: this method is too hard. According to Bailey, “Quick and Dirty” needs to be maintained for at least a week to take effect. I struggled to summon the willpower for one day. This method is simply too challenging for most people. If you have the willpower and focus to read a medical textbook (or otherwise completely bore yourself) rather than scroll on Instagram, then you likely possess the will to simply resist distractions in the first place. Between “Nice and Easy” and “Quick and Dirty,” I found myself in a rather difficult situation. With a challenging course load and college applications, I desperately required focus now more than ever, but how could I develop it? 

Method 3: A Balance

It’s been established that (personally) the two techniques are weak individually, but what about a combination? I favored the consistency of “Nice and Easy” and the effectiveness of “Quick and Dirty.” However, it proved tricky to merge the two. Ultimately, I decided that I would give myself 30 minutes of digital entertainment (on a timer of course) along with a singular focus-based challenge per day. For example, last Wednesday I spent 30 minutes making sure that my Strava KOMs were intact, then challenged myself to read 30 pages of Don Quixote (old translation). The routine grew on me. I could get creative, reading part of the iCloud terms and conditions one day, or even drawing inspiration from senior Joseph Fenton, who challenged himself to computer program for 30 minutes every day. The system was more sustainable than “Quick and Dirty,” and held me more accountable than “Nice and Easy.” I was hopeful.

It is worth noting that conquering a social media addiction takes time, and progress isn’t linear. Unfortunately, I would frequently forget to accomplish the daily focus challenge, or dismiss my 30-minute social media timer. I consulted a blog by David Asprey to learn how to maintain consistency. The two primary methods to improve were exercise and sleep. So, in the last week or so, I have attempted to prioritize these facets of improvement. Despite the occasional bad day, I have been exercising and sleeping more than in past years––positively affecting grades and mental health. Consequently, I noticed that my phone screen time went from an average of 3.5 hours per day last year, to an average of 45 minutes per day this year. Exceptional progress was made in a mere couple of weeks; however, I would argue that I am still addicted, and it may take months of training until I would characterize myself otherwise. The truth of the situation is that applications such as Instagram have had decades to refine their interfaces––optimizing dopamine release. Even after weeks of consistent training I still find myself gravitating towards these platforms.

While not the perfect ending some of you may have expected, I hope that this article inspired you to confront social media use, or in the very least was informative. The Rowland Hall Upper School features a wide spectrum of social media users. Some of us don’t use it at all, while some of us are on it all day. Social media use isn’t all bad, it can be an invaluable resource to staying in touch with friends and family. Yet, if you find social media harming your sleep and grades, perhaps consider using some of the tactics discussed above. For those of us who are fairly non-stimulated by social media, placing your devices in another room or turning them off may suffice. Those of you with willpower and a social media addiction may consider boring yourself to destimulate your brain and improve focus. And lastly, for those of us such as myself who are truly addicted and without a will, consider a gradual and consistent approach––making sure you confront yourself when you are on devices. Even for students who have no difficulty focusing, knowledge for improving our attention spans may prove useful as we get older and social media evolves to maintain our platform interaction. Writer Zarah Shariff notes that “In a study conducted by Microsoft Corp, the rise of social media in the early years of the 21st century has reportedly caused the average attention spans of humans to drop significantly. Since its peak of 12 seconds in the year 2000, researchers found that in 2013, the average attention span had dropped to a whopping eight seconds.” Thus, naturally, it would be sensible to expect our attention spans to continue to worsen. For the two weeks of experimentation, I have noticed remarkable progress; however, it will take around four months to truly determine the extent to which the above techniques improve focus. If this seems like something you would like to try, I recommend reading Descartes. It’s excruciating but in the best possible way.