New research reveals our attention spans are shrinking

New research says our attention spans are shrinking — and smartphones are a big reason why.

We went from having an attention span of two-and-half-minutes 20 years ago, to 75 seconds thirteen years ago, to just 47 seconds now.

With access to any information at our fingertips and distractions all around us, we’re losing the ability to focus.

According to Dr. Gloria Mark at UC Irvine, the average time we spend on a single task before switching has dropped from two and a half minutes to just 47 seconds (American Psychological Association).

But it’s not just about distraction. We’re offloading our memories to our devices — phone numbers, directions, facts we used to just know — and that’s dangerous.

It’s making it harder to learn. When we stop exercising that muscle, we lose it. That muscle will atrophy.

Here’s what I keep coming back to: our attention span should be respected. What we give our attention to affects who we become.

If we’re handing our best hours to a screen feeding us content we won’t remember five minutes from now, we have to ask ourselves — who are we becoming? I need to take the phone away from my kids and they need to take mine away from me.

Your attention is valuable. You need it to pay attention to those around you like your spouse and kids, you need it to have original thoughts and you need attention spans to cook rice. Treat your attention span like it holds value, because it does.

Read more about the study and its results here.