Distracted from Distraction by Distraction
To be distracted means to have your attention focused on something other than what you should be focused on, usually because you are interrupted by something more interesting. Most of us become distracted during the day at one point (at one time) or another, perhaps by an email message from a friend or by a website that gets our attention and is more interesting than what we are working on now.
Distractions are normal, but they can sometimes be a problem, especially when we don’t realize just how much time we are spending on them. We’ve all had the experience of deciding to check this cool website “just for a minute” and then, a half hour later, finding ourselves still looking at it (and not doing our work!).
The truth is (The fact is) we are very poor judges of how much time certain things take us to do, especially when we are involved in something interesting. This is what psychologists call being “in flow,” when you lose track of time (don’t realize how much time you are spending on something) because you are so absorbed (completely focused) in something. That’s why we get “lost in a book” when we start reading a good story and then, hours later, realize that we haven’t eaten our dinner because we’ve been so focused on our reading.
Unfortunately, being distracted and being a parent is not a good combination, since young children can get themselves into trouble very quickly. If a parent isn’t paying attention, a young child can easily fall or wander off (leave the parent and go somewhere else by himself). A recent report suggested that, in fact, parents are increasingly (more and more) getting distracted by things like reading their text messages and looking at their smartphones. The result has not been good for their children.
The number of injuries to children in the United States under the age of five has been growing in the past five years. Since 2007, there have been the following changes in injuries to young children:
- Chairs and sofas (couches): +27%
- Playground equipment: +16%
- Unintentional (not planned) fall: +17%
- Something in eye or throat: +10%
- Near drowning (almost dying in the water): +105%
The rise in injuries has paralleled (gone in the same direction as) the rise in the use of cellphones, especially smartphones. In fact, before 2007, when smartphones and other devices began to become more popular, the number of child injuries had been falling (decreasing) in the U.S. This of course does not prove that the two trends (movement up or down in an activity) of increasing injuries and cellphone use are related, but it seems likely that they are. A father who decides to make a “quick check” (look for a brief moment) of his text messages may end up looking down at his phone much longer than he thinks. Meanwhile (at the same time), little Johnny may be falling into the pool!
In one study, researchers watched 30 parents with young children in a Philadelphia park, and found that all of them stopped looking at their child at some point to look at their electronic devices (machines such as smartphones). Children are much more likely to take risks when they are not being watched, making text message and smartphone distractions all the more (even more) dangerous for them. A 2010 survey of adults found that 22% of them reported being so distracted by their text messages that they physically hit or bumped into (hit accidentally) another thing or person. (I’ve almost been hit several times here in Los Angeles by people looking down at their cellphones while walking down the street.)
My mother had a solution for all this that she would yell at my brothers and me: Watch what you’re doing! That still seems like good advice.
~Jeff
*The title of this post is from the poem “Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot.
Photo credit: Girls playing in small pool, Wikipedia CC
October 9th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Jeff, we love you. Your admirers from Russia
October 9th, 2012 at 10:46 am
Hi everybody .
That’s it .We all are experiencing this new phenomena ,and the downside is precisely ,all these examples you are exposing .
Once more time we are not capable of controlling the bad effects that may affect the children.The fact is clear and it is a serious problem
mainly for couples with children as you described earlier .One thing! It’s essential not to use these devices when being with kids.
that is a lack of responsibility and in most cases ,a death trap. So ,be aware ,we cannot put their lives in danger.
October 9th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Hi Jeff,
Some children,like my nephew, are typically careless.For example, whenever my nephew who is 9 years old is playing some sort of games that need a lot of movements,like soccer, he get injured or something. And imagine what would happen if their parents are distracted so easily.
I think parents should buy smartphones for children, too. And when they want to use theirs, give the children their smartphones. In this way both parents and children become distracted and nothing will happen!!
I was just kidding.
Buy.
October 9th, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Tell me about it ,
Well, it has become sth of an epidemic ,hasn’t it?
It is a borderless problem
No matter what part of world u live , everyday , with no exception, everywhere you go , in the subway, restaurants, sidewalks ,and even washrooms , u see a large number of individuals who are so deep into their small electric gadgets as if they are hypnotized by them and that they are not aware of what is going on around them.
The other day in the subway , I saw my friend hunched over his new iPhone so lost that he didn’t realized my presence by him.we work at the same place. I was standing right by him for a whole 30 minutes and he never took his eyes off the device to see that it is me standing by him.
As we were getting off the train ,I shoved passed him. Funny thing , he said sorry to me as if it was his fault
Without rolling his eyes off the damn device.
Later on at the lunch break I told him about the whole incident and I told him I might as well picked his wallet. He was shocked that he hadn’t noticed me for the whole train trip to work.
Well , guys , it is the world that electric smart gadgets have brought upon us.an endless world with the population : one. (just one person)
Yours ,
October 9th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
My children are nearly grown up and I have no smartphone, puh.
Ok, I have an old iPod (Generation 1?) from my oldest child to hear els-podcast on my way. So, my eyes are not distracted when I walk.
Best regards
Nele
October 10th, 2012 at 7:41 am
thanks Jeff
This is an interesting development for me that I want to share the story with you.
some disadvantages might become beneficial if you give carefully thought to them.
growing up, I really loved to read books. whatever book i had my hand on, i usually read to the end. My mom, however, complained day in day out, since i rarely went out with my friends. I usually lost the track of time. And also, when I was at store with my mom, i usually wandered off, making my mother to look after me. to top it of, I usually read English books and I hated Math and science, which caused me a lot of problems, with the scores i got in school. I nearly got kicked out of the school. suddenly things began to change, when i became a teacher. An English teacher!
Now, I love to be distracted. you know what i mean! distraction from every thing to ESL pod cast. My students pay me money to listen to ESL pod cast, and then help them understand it.
Nothing I want more!
October 11th, 2012 at 6:31 am
Dear parvize,
It is nice that you manage to read books through.
I can’t remember reading even one book through.
It just takes a few pages before I plunge into a deep sleep.
Seriously, book reading makes me feel sleepy and makes my eyes feel heavy. I fall sleep usually 20 ,30 pages through the book.
I akways check the ending before finishing the first chapter. I got distracted with every little thing while reading.
Trust me ,I m still committing myself to book reading knowing it is totally beneficial for me as an English student. But, I never really committed to it.
That is why , I don’t know a lot of highfalutin words. And, what makes it worse is my spelling. Man, my spelling is awful.
When it comes to vocabulary and spelling I m totally illiterate.
I m telling you man , I m awful that way.
I m amazed that how on earth I read lucy’s canon over and over and I never get tired of them. I believe it is because the humor touch Lucy adds in almost every single script entry.
Needless to say that I m a blog junky , even worst a blog hugger which concludes the fact that I read the posts more often than not
Best regards,
The Vagrant
)
October 12th, 2012 at 2:01 am
Hi! I have had some problems.
I miss you all,
Tania
October 12th, 2012 at 6:32 am
Hi!
“Here is a place of disaffection
Time before and time after
In a dim light: neither daylight
Investing form with lucid stillness
Turning shadow into transient beauty
With slow rotation suggesting permanence
Nor darkness to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.
Neither plenitude nor vacancy. Only a flicker
Over the strained time-ridden faces
DISTRACTED FROM DISTRACTION BY DISTRACTION.”
“Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot
October 13th, 2012 at 1:29 am
Hi! Difficult to me to translate the phrase “distracted from distraction by distraction” from “Burnt Norton”.
As “distracted” means and crazy, insane but and absent-minded.
And “distraction” can mean absence of mind but and amusement, entertainment.
I have found “The Four Quartets” in bilingual edition at our public library and the meaning is different from the post title.
October 13th, 2012 at 1:44 am
Hi! Anyway, we adopted the words “distracted” and “distraction” as “distrat” and “distractie”.
And I was able to translate correctly your post title.
Interesting topic because I often lose track of time.
Very, very good advice “Watch what you’re doing!”.
Thank you.
October 13th, 2012 at 1:48 am
Hi! After months of terrible drought at last the first rain of fall.
October 14th, 2012 at 1:42 am
Hi!
“In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.”
“Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot
October 14th, 2012 at 1:48 am
Hi! Thanks to you I have read the Eliot’poems again.
A great pleasure.
Thank you.
October 14th, 2012 at 1:53 am
Hi!
“Will the sunflower turn to us, will the clematis
Stray down, bend to us; tendril and spray
Clutch and cling?”
“Burnt Norton” by T.S. Eliot