By: Kassandra Lippincott
An Overview of social media and declining attention span
Previously, I talked about how the impact of technology on our attention span is a topic of concern in today’s society. With the constant access to mentally stimulating virtual content, including social media platforms like TikTok, questions arise about whether these platforms are affecting the attention spans of adolescents.
While some studies suggest that extensive interactions with social media networks could influence our attention and other aspects of cognition, the brain is complex and not fully understood. Mainstream media often provides quick-fix solutions without sufficient research to back up their claims. Nevertheless, social media consumption does affect the brain, and further scientific research is needed to identify the factors of this phenomenon.
Media Channels and Their Summary of Scientific Findings
In my exploration of the impact of technology on attention span, I stumbled upon an article from Discover Magazine titled “Investigating Screen Time’s Impact on the Attention Span.” While the article discussed new research on how technology affects attention span, it omitted some important details.
They briefly mentioned a research study conducted by scientists focusing on how different forms of stimulating learning affect children’s brains. The article discusses how this study reveals new information about the impact of technology on attention spans, but it fails to provide all the relevant details.
The mentioned study was conducted on children that examined the impact of different types of learning stimuli on their brains. The study called “Functional Connectivity of Attention, Visual, and Language Networks During Audio, Illustrated, and Animated Stories in Preschool-Age Children,” found that the illustrated format was the most optimal for promoting network dynamics in early childhood, as it provided balanced attention, imagery integration, and support for the language network. However, animation was found to sharply decrease connectivity, making it difficult for children to shift their attention and integrate visual and language networks.
The article then linked the study’s findings to adult depression, which seemed like an unfounded extrapolation. The scientific study performed focused on children and how various stimuli affect their brains and yet they throw in another study in an attempt to back up their claim.
The research article provided valid facts and information on the study performed. My only critique concerns the effects of animated stimuli on children’s brains as it may be new information in relation to the various forms of learning it’s important to point out that animated pictures have existed since 1908. This in turn raises the question of whether social media platforms are the root cause of declining attention spans.
The published article from Discover Magazine connects the research findings to make claims on how “the concern is that the brain hasn’t evolved to handle an onslaught of visual cues and immediate gratification”. The research study they are using as their source does not even mention ‘gratification’ in any form.
While this study highlights the impact of animated stimuli on children’s learning capabilities, it’s important to note that overconsumption of any type of stimuli is detrimental to one’s health.
What does this all mean?
In summary, although the article I read raised some interesting points, it didn’t provide a comprehensive analysis of the impact of technology on attention span. While there may be a genuine concern for declining attention spans, there doesn’t seem to be any valid evidence of detrimental impact of this societal issue.
What is drawing my attention currently is how many news articles there are ‘informing’ the public of these research studies but not stating the facts about the findings. They twist scientific conclusions and take out the smallest, irrelevant sentence or phrase to make it fit their point of view.
Moving forward, I aim to research this aspect of the digital world and how false information is so easily spread. The aspect of social media diminishing individuals’ attention spans is fast spreading false information. To discover the depths of such deception, I will explore what various TikTok creators have to say about it. This should be interesting!
The Velvet Type 
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