As college students, we constantly have assignments to do throughout each week, whether it be working on a paper or just reading a chapter. You would think that humans have a longer attention span than animals, but sadly, that isn’t true.
According to Time Magazine, people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, while the average attention span for the notoriously ill-focus goldfish is 9 seconds. (Seriously guys, we have to do better.)
Here are five of many distractions students face while doing their homework:
1. Searching for videos of “Bad Girls Club”
By now, everyone that is into reality TV shows should know that “Bad Girls Club” is one of the most ratchet shows on Oxygen. A group of women (and I mean loud and obnoxious brats) have to live together in a mansion and deal with each other’s petty schemes. Although these women are in their early 20s, they all act like they’re five years old.
While searching for videos of “Bad Girls Club,” you’ll find things such as the girls clapping in each other’s faces, throwing clothes out into the pool, pulling hair, and security trying to break up fights. If you ever get bored while doing your homework, that should boost up your adrenaline.
2. Taking selfies on Snapchat
Snapchat has tons of filters for you to play with that will give you a wonderful selfie experience. There are funny filters, including the dog face and filters that make your face look deformed.
However, girls love using filters that make them look more attractive: the ones that give them lipstick, lashes, and make them look as if they have their “face beat,” as our generation would say. We’re often so wrapped up in the world of Snapchat that we forget our textbook is staring at us, waiting for us to flip to the next page.
Sorry Snapchat – you do a great job at making people’s faces look beat, but you can’t do their homework for them.
3. Professing your love to your boyfriend
Everyone can admit their phone is always right next to them while doing homework. The problem is, the world stops when your boyfriend texts you, ‘Good morning, babe.’ An exchange of love letters are sent back and forth, and you have trouble telling your boyfriend you’ll talk to him later. It then becomes difficult to make the decision to continue doing homework or to Facetime your boyfriend.
After you’ve decided to Facetime your boyfriend, you realize that hours have passed, and it’s now midnight. An important question to consider is, “What have I gotten accomplished today?” The likely answer is, “Not much.”
4. Ordering pizza at a local restaurant
As a college student, you probably wake up, get out of bed, and get ready to head to class as part of your daily schedule. However, you regret not eating as soon as your stomach begins to rumble. Being hungry makes it hard for you to focus in class, so once you head home, you order a large, cheesy-crust pizza just for yourself. Instead of doing your assignments for the next day, you proceed to wash your dishes as you await your delicious pizza.
5. Spending your rent money on Fashion Nova
Online shopping is a huge distraction for students doing their homework on their laptops. As you read the directions of your assignment, you imagine how cute you would look in a dress you saw on Fashion Nova. Then you decide to add 15 items to your shopping cart and get upset when you see the price.
Online shopping is like the ultimate high for women, because who doesn’t want their Facebook blowing up with emojis and comments saying “Yasss, slay girl!”? It’s obvious that students care more about how they look on the weekends than getting their work done.
The truth is, most of us wish we had an automated device in our brains where we’re able to retain every piece of information we will be accountable for in our classes. Everyone would have all A’s, and life would be so much easier. Unfortunately, that isn’t how life works. While trying to balance school and our social lives, our attention span will continuously be a dilemma we’ll have to deal with during our time at ISU.