Introduction
People are easily distracted. In most daily lives, people are more often distracted by numerous obstacles than by the time they spend focusing on something. For example, most people use their smartphones on their morning commute. Of course, there are people who use it for work, but they usually look for something to cheer them up on their smartphones to relieve the boredom of rush hour. Also, while working, people will be easily exposed to new news and articles, and various work calls and emails will come in. Even before going to bed, people check their cell phones and push back their sleep time. People seem to be addicted to smartphones, but in fact, they seem to hate the state of doing nothing because there is no external stimulus. These interruptions also affect the moment people try to focus on something, and the efficiency of their work decreases. So how can people make smarter judgments without being easily swayed by these stimuli and interference?
Distraction
Nir Yal, the author of “Indistractable,” says that distraction is not caused by the outside, but by the inside which is called ‘an uncomfortable sensation’. The fundamental cause of our inability to concentrate begins with feeling uncomfortable, an emotion that begins inside. People are trying to escape from an uncomfortable sensation when they feel distracted.
Homeostatic response
To find out why people are disturbed, they need to check when they act. For example, on cold days, people don’t try to go outside as much as possible. If they are outside, they will try to get into a place where they can avoid the cold as soon as possible. When time passes and the place feels hot enough, they will take off their coats. Also, people try to eat something when they feel hungry. If they eat too little, they will not feel full, and if they eat too much, they will be full, so they will eat the right amount. Like this, people always feel and act physiologically. This is called the ‘homeostatic response’.
Homeostatic reactions are similarly applied in the psychological sense, where people go out to do something when they feel lonely, bored, or left out. For example, they may try to meet a friend, and they relieve their feelings by watching Facebook, webtoons, movies, and dramas at home. Therefore, every action starts with discomfort. Therefore, all actions are promoted by the desire to escape discomfort, and time management is required to be surrounded by these desires, so time management can be viewed the same as pain management. So uncomfortable emotions prevent people from making better judgments.
Study by Timothy Wilson
According to a study by Timothy Wilson, the experimenter had nothing to do in the laboratory. Then they wrapped a band around their arms and placed a device that would cause an electric shock to the band when the button was pressed. Of the experimenters, 60 percent of men and 20 percent of women pressed the button. Even though they notified them that an electric shock would be applied, they could not stand the condition of having to do nothing and stay still. human behavior is moved by the brain. the evolutionary point, the human brain is designed to think permanently and repeatedly and instinctively feel bored so as to find a new behavior. behavior to resolve uncomfortable.
Instabrain
Anders Hansen, the author of “Instabrain,” says that smartphones that are used naturally in these psychological conditions have negative effects on the brain. When we felt lonely, we used to resolve the inconvenience through relationships, such as meeting friends or meeting family, because the development of smartphones can resolve loneliness without much effort. This has negative effects on the brain, and dopamine is formed only when it reaches its threshold to happiness because it can be easily reached by the use of smartphones. This is the same process as the addictive nature of drugs or cigarettes ruins the brain, It’s like being addicted to cigarettes or games, and you can get happiness in an easy way, not the happiness you get from trying, so you repeat it even though it’s not good behavior, and when this repetition forms a habit, the brain changes without trying to work for high-level behavior and thinking.
Die Smartphone-Epidemie
Manfred Spitzer, an author of Die Smartphone-Epidemie, also claims that the use of smartphones hinders us from focusing and ruins our brain, and just by having a smartphone around us, we are exposed to various alarms on our phones and make a habit of checking our smartphones continuously. In addition, since the idea of not caring about smartphones itself touches nerves in the brain, exposure to smartphones for a long time from childhood, when the brain develops, makes it difficult to make wise judgments. In addition, it causes health hazards such as myopia, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and lack of exercise as well as concentration disorders. Therefore, the brain, accustomed to being disturbed, is likely to do things that are emotionally dependent, even though it could have made better judgments.
In other words, the actions we want to escape from discomfort are the reasons why we cannot concentrate. Therefore, if you don’t learn new ways to deal with it, you have no choice but to be distracted and disturbed for life.
How to act rightly
People have evolved to think and act constantly when they feel unhappy, lonely, or unhappy with life. There is no need to look at people feeling something unfulfilled. Many inventions were eventually made because they felt uncomfortable. Therefore, discomfort can have different consequences depending on how you deal with it, even if it can temporarily disturb people. People who are not easily disturbed have tactics to deal with the inconvenience. It’s about changing the way you respond to emotions.
Bad strategy – strict restraint
People often try to control what they shouldn’t do for their goals. But strict restraint can backfire. This is especially true of highly addictive behavior. For example, consider someone who is determined to quit smoking as a New Year’s goal. For a few days, he may not smoke through strict restraint. But the moment when they can’t stand impulsive emotions is bound to come. For example, they can keep their promise not to smoke in the morning when they have strong self-control. However, ordinary people are more likely to look for cigarettes when they are tired from work, drunk, or stressed, and in this case, they can break their promise if they are swept away by the impulsive feeling of wanting to smoke. The moment you break away from strict self-restraint and smoke, people become addicted to the happiness you get from giving up and acting. The brain captures the moment when even bad behavior feels happy and identifies how it feels happy. it learns smoking is good for feeling comfortable even if it isn’t good for health. That’s why smokers who hate cigarette smoke or know that cigarettes are unhealthy fail to quit smoking. Therefore, strict restraint and moderation in addictive behavior may not be a good strategy to suppress behavior.
Good strategy – 10 minutes rule
There is a ‘10 minutes rule’. (when people want to control their urgent feelings, set an alarm for 10 minutes. and then think about that very deeply and have curiosity. Where these emotions came from? Why do these feelings want to be handled immediately? emotions are like waves, Surfing the urge, so they are urgent and trigger an impulse to solve them immediately. However, if you change your point of view, if you deal well with the first time when emotions are rushing like waves, the mind that was gripped by desire can regain its calmness. In 2009, Bowen, s. and Marlatt, A., conducted an experiment on impulses on college students who were smokers, meaning that they could not consciously control the occurrence of impulses, but could change their response to them(Bowen, 2009). Any emotion is bound to become dull over time. Therefore, even if people want to resolve the inconvenience right now, if they leave “10 minutes of spare time,” the uncomfortable feelings will disappear quickly, and they will see a powerful effect in this simple way.
Conclusion
The reason why people are easily disturbed is not from external stimuli, but from internal discomfort, and modern people are easily disturbed because there is a simple tool called a smartphone that can relieve this inconvenience. Therefore, it is important to connect the brain in a direction that helps make decisions to resolve these uncomfortable feelings. This is because desirable actions to relieve uncomfortable emotions can become habits and move forward in a better direction of life. The ten-minute rule helps people reflect on their impulsive feelings. In the digital age, people can get all information without having to go out of their homes and experience knowledge indirectly through various methods such as video. So the way to survive without being swept away in an era of information flood is to have the ability to collect and utilize information. The ability to search, learn, and utilize as needed, rather than being passively provided with information, will be important for living in future times. Therefore, the ability to understand and control impulsive emotions so as not to be further disturbed will become an important virtue in the cyber era.
References
Ledford, Heidi. “We Dislike Being Alone with Our Thoughts.” Nature, 3 July 2014, 10.1038/nature.2014.15508. Accessed 1 Dec. 2019.
Manfred Spitzer. Die Smartphone-Epidemie Gefahren Für Gesundheit, Bildung Und Gesellschaft. 2020. Stuttgart Klett-Cotta, 2019.
Nir Eyal. INDISTRACTABLE : How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life. S.L., Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
Weise, Sarah, and John Wuebben. Instabrain : The New Rules for Marketing to Generation Z. 2020. San Bernardino, Ca, Dongyangbooks, 24 Mar. 2019.
Wilson, Timothy D., et al. “Just Think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind.” Science, vol. 345, no. 6192, 3 July 2014, pp. 75–77, science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6192/75, 10.1126/science.1250830.
