In 2015, a ‘staggering’ study was published.
Canadian scientists partnered with Microsoft to conduct brainwave measurement experiments, with 2,000 survey participants.
The results showed that in 2000, the average human attention span was… 12 seconds.
But by 2013, it had ‘been’ reduced to just… 8 seconds.
Truly staggering!
But more shockingly, there are also figures on goldfish’s attention spans.
It is… 9 seconds.
What does this mean? Human concentration is even worse than… a goldfish’s.
It turns out that “goldfish brain” is real: an attention span of just 9 seconds. But humans now have only 8 seconds. Yet we often tease certain people—such as mothers after childbirth who experience memory loss and difficulty concentrating—calling them “goldfish brains.” Not quite, and it is not limited to anyone in particular: the human brain in general is gloriously “evolving” to the level of… a goldfish brain. In fact, it does not even measure up! What a brilliant achievement!
Too much information makes people lose attention to any particular piece of information. According to a study, 63 billion gigabytes of digital data were created in 2000, rising to a projected 163 trillion gigabytes in 2025. By 2019, there were around 1.7 billion websites globally. Every day, we ‘struggle’ to ‘survive’ the ‘brand war,’ with countless brands using every ‘trick’ to attract our attention. On an average day, you may encounter thousands of brand messages, both consciously and unconsciously.
Smartphones seemed destined to make our lives easier and improve our concentration. But no: while working, suddenly “ding,” a social-media notification arrives. We pick up the phone to “check.” 30 seconds later, a new email arrives; immediately after, a stream of messages from messaging app A. Before we finish responding, more messages arrive from messaging app B. Before we can read them, another email; just as we are about to check it, social media sends another notification… Returning to work, we no longer remember where we were in the process. Everything has to be “restarted” and “warmed up” from scratch. Productivity plummets. Why? Because our capacity to concentrate has been significantly weakened!
Children encounter “smart” phones from a young age. Of course, everything has two sides. Smartphones can give children access to many programs online, increasing understanding, creativity (although continuously consuming information passively can reduce creativity), and the ability to connect across dimensions—also a necessary spiritual quality… But beware of the harm outweighing the benefit. Many mothers let children watch videos on phones or tablets to… feed them quickly and get it over with. Easy! The child opens their mouth for food, eyes glued to the screen, chewing soullessly like a zombie, with no “connection” to the food, no mindfulness, no energy of appreciation or gratitude for it, and no full experience of its taste.
In short, it is a lack of concentration. Many fathers take their children out, and when the children fuss or cry, they can only open their phones to let them play games or watch entertainment, to get some ‘peace.’ Many families still habitually turn on the television while eating. Whatever we pay attention to, our minds turn toward it and energy ‘flows’ there. Family meals are a time to gather; energy needs to ‘converge’ at the dining table. Everyone should use that time together to feel family bonds and show care by asking about one another. In the study of symbolic/spiritual language, the table itself symbolizes ‘sharing and communication.’ Yet turning on the television during a meal makes the mind ‘wander’ toward it, deprives the meal of mindfulness, and breaks our concentration.
As society develops in this direction, one of the things eroding most is the human ability to FOCUS.
So saying that the ability to concentrate is today’s scarcest ‘resource’ is no exaggeration!
Meditation could be the solution to this pressing problem!
Because meditation helps us become more focused. Meditation is about awareness. Awareness requires focus. Focus is one of meditation's characteristics. If there is distraction, it is not meditation. If focus involves excessive tension and suppression, that is not meditation either. Meditation combines focus with relaxation. There is no contradiction. They complement each other.
Meditation techniques help students learn to steady the mind, concentrate, observe, and recognize an object such as the breath or changes in the body. In fact, many scientific studies have confirmed this. A University of North Carolina study found that students who meditate increase their awareness and concentration manyfold compared with others. When we train concentration through meditation, our brains can “restructure themselves” to help us focus better in everyday life.
The scarcer something is, the more precious. Yet meditation can help preserve intact—and even develop—that “intangible capital,” that immensely precious and necessary “asset.”
That is focus.
Day 12 of the 21-day series of meditation and sharing on social media — sowing seeds of inner peace together.
