The average American teen spends over seven hours on their phone daily. With this generation of “screenagers” entering college and adulthood, they are experiencing increasing difficulty working on tasks that require long periods of focus. At the college level, this results in students who do not have the capacity to read entire books or engage with complex material, leading them to look for short cuts like generative artificial intelligence that undermine the purpose of higher education. The University and students have a responsibility to counter these issues , namely attention deficits which encourage problematic short cuts, before they permanently take hold.
To understand the extent of attention deficit at the University and beyond, one must acknowledge the fact that Generation Z has grown up with constant access to visual material which is designed to hold the viewer’s attention for a very short period of time. This includes TikTok videos, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. This media prioritizes instant gratification over long-term focus.
The omnipresence of technology constantly tempts students to cave to distractions. If you walked into the Chemistry Building 402 lecture hall 50 years ago, you would see rows of students handwriting notes — now, you will most likely be met with a wall of screens. While technology has undeniably increased efficiency in the classroom, this rise in productivity can often come at the cost of students’ focus. Having access to messages, social media, games and more on the same devices used for notetaking provides the constant temptation of distraction, obstructing students’ ability to be fully present and absorb information…