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We live in a time full of distractions. In order to attract your attention, (the world) has set off a war, those knowledge workers who can succeed are those who know how to protect themselves Time people.

—— Jeremy Redleaf, co-founder of Cave Day

Hurry me up with this phone

You know when you are studying, do n’t go to study on your own, just do n’t sit opposite the person you like, because you definitely ca n’t read the book, and you ’re looking forward to seeing it.

Our emotions on mobile phones are equally humble. I look forward to / anxious about the vibrations that may ring at any time. I look forward to the unpleasant anecdotes after unlocking.

Picture from Business Insider

Some studies have pointed out that even if your phone is muted or turned off, as long as you can see it, it will attract your attention and cause interference.

This simple “common sense” has made mobile phones the primary goal in this attention defense battle, inspiring designers and developers to come up with various solutions to isolate temptations.

Someone designed a lock box for a mobile phone. The principle is very straightforward. Put your phone in a Lock Box and lock it. The box will not be unlocked until the time you set has expired, allowing you to take out your phone.

Lock your phone, picture from Hackday

Google’s Envelope project is a bit more refined. The design team designed a series of paper envelope templates for the Pixel 3a, which were folded and folded according to the instructions, and they became temporary mobile phone isolation tools.

Envelope, picture from Google

At the same time, you can still operate the phone with digital buttons printed on paper models or camera instructions, using limited phone functions. After the work is finished, you just need to tear the paper model directly to get back the normal mobile phone.

Envelope can still be photographed, picture from Google

In addition to physical barriers, a new area has been developed around applications that reduce unnecessary mobile phone usage time.

iOS ’s “Screen Time” and apps such as Moment, RescueTime, OffScreen can record screen usage time and frequency to help users better understand how much time they use their phones; Freedom lets users design “device use Plan “to automatically open specific webpages, applications, or even disconnect the Internet at a specific time.

RescueTime, picture from Popsugar

But just like the relationship between smartwatches and fitness, such tools to help manage mobile phone use are likely to be the icing on the cake of the more self-disciplined, but in the hands of users who will unlock all locked applications anyway Here still cannot be a charcoal in the snow.

Our habit of obtaining high-frequency debris information through smartphones may make our ability to concentrate more weak, but to get rid of this dilemma, simply locking the phone is not enough.

Mobile is just one aspect, we need a more comprehensive social experience

Mobile phones connect us more closely to the world and allow us to do many things independently. At the same time, it also reduces the frequency with which we communicate and be with others, and the “solitude” and “social support” behind us are weakened.

University philosophy teacher Ron Srigley has initiated a project where students who are willing to use their mobile phones for eight days and record their feelings during those eight days can earn extra credits.

One of the most interesting feedbacks is that most students are “forced” to communicate with others seriously. The student, aliased to Stewart, summarizes this as: “Forced to establish a ‘real relationship’ with people, which allows I have grown … Every experience has taught me to deal with relationships better than to hide behind my phone to escape. “

Many people use their phones to avoid social interaction. Pictures from MIT

In addition, people are afraid of boredom.

A study required participants to sit in a room and think alone for fifteen minutes. At the same time, a device capable of releasing a small amount of electric shock was also placed in this room. Before the experiment, everyone said they were willing to pay to avoid experiencing this small electric shock, but after the start, 67% of male volunteers and 25% of female volunteers were bored to experience the electric shock.

The inexhaustible mobile phone is also a weapon to kill boredom. Even if the content itself is boring, it is better than looking at “boring” alone.

So when we try to rebuild the concentration that was damaged by the information explosion, we also need to focus on the social relationships that are damaged by it.

The “paid study rooms” that have emerged over the years are one of the alternative ways to rebuild social relationships.

In general, people who are willing to pay 10-15 yuan per hour to use the study room are those who have very clear learning goals and needs, such as graduate students and candidates with various qualification certificates.

Paid study room, picture from Zhiwei.

Furthermore, this type of study room is not just a stack of simple tables and chairs. Usually it is divided into bright / dark rooms according to the use of equipment (computer / paper). It is also equipped with multiple empty energy spaces such as rest areas and public areas. Coffee And snacks.

But most importantly, maybe the “atmosphere”:

I do n’t want to do anything else here, because everyone comes here with the same purpose. Everyone around them is working hard, so they will naturally feel the atmosphere.830063.jpg? ImageView2 / 2 / w / 1000 / format / jpg / interlace / 1 / q / 85 “data-w =” 938 “data-h =” 621 “>

There are many brain training games on the market, pictures from CNET

Specifically, researchers are struggling with a problem-you can play more puzzle brain games, you can be better at playing these games, but this means that you can transfer this “brain boost” to a wider range Application?

The National Academy of Sciences pointed out that among a bunch of unreliable experiments, the only one with a reasonable design and relatively reliable conclusions came from Gazzaley, who can slightly prove that training is effective for improving cognition. However, officials emphasize that their experiments still have limitations in scale.

It is worth pointing out that the training of Neuroscape founded by Gazzaley is different from sitting in front of a computer and playing a puzzle game. It combines thinking games, sports and even face-to-face communication encouragement workshops.

Gazzaley’s current training game combines brain power and movement. Pictures from “connection”

“I think we will unleash the potential to optimize our cognitive and emotional regulation in an unprecedented way. But can we do it now? I dare not say that. But I think we can do it in the future. Gazzaley told Wired.

We’re not sure if we can finally find a game that allows us to have a “stronger brain”, or find other shortcuts to fix our attention. But it is certain that the increasingly scarce ability to focus will become a new personal advantage in the information age.

Whether inThrowing your phone on the sofa behind you at work, or looking for a more focused environment, we can still rebuild the ability to focus from now on, before it’s too late.

This article comes from WeChat public account: Ai Faner (ID: ifanr) , author: Fang Jiawen