This ‘21st-century Syndrome’ is due to two factors:
<ol>
<li>An overabundance of dopamine-inducing options is taking its toll on our minds, making it difficult to relax. </li>
<li>A sea of unprocessed emotions coupled with social disconnection is making us constantly uneasy.</li>
</ol>
Our brains are facing an onslaught of information and ‘supernormal stimuli’ from a variety of sources like social media, gaming, pornography and the likes.

The 21st-Century Syndrome

The brain needs time and space to process information. The breaks we take during work, like talking to a colleague at the watercooler provides a ‘downtime’ and helps process information. 
This takes the shape of distractions when we are at home. You could even be problem-solving while quietly doing the laundry at home, as your brain processes the events and information in the background.

Distractions Can Be Useful

Our feelings, emotions and fears remain largely unshared at home, when we are trying to do many things at once, fighting countless battles single-handedly to balance everything.
Not having someone to talk to gets us into distractions, and when we force ourselves to not indulge, it makes us want to do it more.

Unshared Fears Lead Us Into Distraction

Providing yourself with an identity of the kind of person you aspire to be, like a non-smoker, a non-distractible person or someone who is sober and calm, provides a narrative for you to focus on.
The more you tell yourself what kind of person you are, the more it turns out to be true.

The Identity Pact

It’s easier than ever to slip into a vortex of YouTube or meaningless email, but if you reflect on why you’re distracted, you might discover something deeper<picture> <source media="(min-width: 1020px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 1020px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" "="" sizes="1210px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=69a8f249f9b70a8e66abb619bc887cc0 2420w"> <source media="(min-width: 1020px)" "="" sizes="1210px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=69a8f249f9b70a8e66abb619bc887cc0 1210w"> <source media="(min-width: 660px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 660px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" "="" sizes="890px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=4955065e77dbb702815692c942054e8c 1780w"> <source media="(min-width: 660px)" "="" sizes="890px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=45&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2&amp;s=4955065e77dbb702815692c942054e8c 890w"> <source media="(min-width: 480px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 480px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" "="" sizes="605px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f4f867aed0aff211152461235b313c30 1210w"> <source media="(min-width: 480px)" "="" sizes="605px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=605&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=f4f867aed0aff211152461235b313c30 605w"> <source media="(min-width: 0px) and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.25), (min-width: 0px) and (min-resolution: 120dpi)" "="" sizes="445px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=2755691ec61f666f1a6069cf1bb40548 890w"> <source media="(min-width: 0px)" "="" sizes="445px" srcset="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=2755691ec61f666f1a6069cf1bb40548 445w"><img alt="Person watching funny pictures instead of working" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ce33f43a9efef340e0ad0e87d06d3f19f3746e25/0_159_4724_2834/master/4724.jpg?width=445&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=2755691ec61f666f1a6069cf1bb40548" width="678" height="407"></picture><figcaption dir="ltr">Distractions, districtions: one psychologist thinks they have become our number one avoidance technique for pain. But there are ways to get better at staying focused. Photograph: shtonado/Getty Images/iStockphoto</figcaption>Once upon a time, smoking at your desk was practically a sign of productivity. I’m not suggesting you rush out and blow a week’s salary on a pack, but I am about to plot a path from the ashed keyboards of yesteryear to our current problem of being hopelessly distracted by technology.The internet constantly cops the blame for diverting us from our labour, to the point that there are apps – the irony! – to help us resist its pull, from growing a virtual tree to locking us out of social media. Obviously social media is engineered to hook our attention, but perhaps there’s something deeper afoot.<img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/f02321934d21cc2545ee0db8d0771f5bd4c8581c/0_0_5616_3370/master/5616.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=7183017ef97eb64d5a762c4e77aab01e" alt="" width="140" height="84">The book <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/barnabylashbrooke/2019/09/17/nir-eyal-tech-addiction-isnt-real-you-just-need-to-be-indistractable/#50e5047a1079" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">Indistractable</a>: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal attempts to answer that. Eyal himself tried every trick to keep focused on his writing, such as using a 1990s word processor without an internet connection, before realising that tech is not the problem.He argues that distraction arises from emotions we’re trying to avoid. Scrolling brings instant relief from intrusive thoughts, just as I would say that lighting a cigarette quelled the same sense of restlessness. Only, smoking didn’t drag us away from our work and into a YouTube vortex.Why is it that when we’re trying to work, psychological discomfort makes itself heard? It could be that the task itself is causing anxiety – like fear of failure – or it could be we’re so bored that our emotions have the space to emerge. (You’re unlikely to get an existential crisis in the middle of a Netflix binge.)Melbourne psychologist <a href="http://www.hurstwoodclinic.com.au/matthew-berry.html#:~:text=Dr%20Matthew%20Berry,Substance%20use%20and%20addiction" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">Dr Matthew Berry</a> thinks distraction has become our number one avoidance technique for pain – more so than drowning it with drugs and alcohol. He says our brains aren’t evolved enough to handle what some researchers call “supernormal stimuli”. These include social media, gaming and pornography, which highly activate our reward system.“I call it 21st-century syndrome and it’s a two-part process,” he says. “It’s difficulty sitting with feelings – many of which are caused by unprocessed emotions and-or social disconnection – coupled with the overabundance of shiny dopamine-y things that we can use to drown out those feelings. We then get over-attuned to one thing – like porn or Instagram – and then under-attuned to anything else.”Esther Coleman-Hawkins works from home, dividing her day between multiple tasks: developing TV programs, recording workshops for her company <a href="https://www.mediamentors.com.au/" data-link-name="in body link" dir="ltr">Media Mentors</a> and creating social media content. “I get most distracted when I don’t know the answer to something,” she tells me. “If I had to identify what was making me anxious, it would absolutely be fear of failure. Fear of not knowing the answers. Fear of fucking up.”At home, these feelings can be harder to handle. “In an office your brain gets downtime when you go to the kitchen and talk to somebody. If you’re working from home, your brain doesn’t get that space. So I think distractions can be useful – it might feel like you’re just doing the laundry, but in the background you’re also problem-solving.”It’s when we allow technology to be the distraction that too much time can get frittered away. And as Eyal says, “if distraction costs us time, then time management is pain management”.Berry recommends his clients break their task down into subtasks to try and narrow down which of the subtasks is triggering the fear. “Then ask yourself, ‘What is the fear about? Is it real, or is it just an old story of mine – such as believing I’m bad at something – trying to scare me?’ Sharing that fear with someone is a great way of disarming it.”A good test of whether it is the task that’s the problem or whether the emotion is related to another issue is to see if you’re able to sit down and calmly read a book, he says. If it’s not task-specific, the next step is to dig deeper into that non-descript “argh” feeling by really trying to identify the specific emotion. “Name it, and then ask yourself: what does that say I need?” Berry says. “Do I need to talk to someone, for instance?”According to Eyal, practicing abstinence by locking yourself out of your favourite social-validation feedback loop won’t work, because banning yourself from doing something only makes you want to do it more (you might have heard of the pop-psychology experiment in which participants are asked to absolutely not think about polar bears).Eyal suggests making an “identity pact” by giving yourself a moniker. Just as you might say “I am sober” or “I am a non-smoker”, you say “I am indistractable”.<img src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a8e43df9c3586930e1d42166baa89ae89b0d415/0_441_7360_4417/master/7360.jpg?width=460&amp;quality=85&amp;auto=format&amp;fit=max&amp;s=1138532ed1ccb795a2e97f13525589c1" alt="" width="140" height="84">“I’m down with that,” says Coleman-Hawkins. “I have a narrative of myself as somebody who can be really focused in the morning, and the more I tell myself that, the more it’s turned out to be true.”Eyal has some tech tips, too: to receive fewer emails, you must send fewer emails. Further, even if you want to respond while a thought takes you, use a program such as Mixmax6 for Gmail to delay delivery and thus give the recipient less time to engage in a back and forth.When you go back to work in the office, opt out of time-drainers like Slack or WhatsApp that have connected you with your coworkers during lockdown. You could also try what Eyal’s wife does to deter their young daughter from chatting: fashion yourself a “concentration crown” (hers is made out of a cheap headpiece with LED lights) to signal that you are not to be interrupted. If you’re distracting yourself right now by reading this, take a moment to rate your current crisis, from aimless antsiness to Munch’s Scream. Chances are you’ve been distracting yourself from the meaningful messages your own emotions have been trying to communicate.<div>Topics</div>

Constantly distracted? Here's how to wrangle '21st-century syndrome' | Australian lifestyle | The Guardian

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

It’s easier than ever to slip into a vortex of YouTube or meaningless email, but if you reflect on why you’re distracted, you might discover something deeper Once upon a time, smoking at your desk was practically a sign of productivity. I’m not suggesting you rush out and blow a week’s salary on a pack, but I am about to plot a path from the ashed keyboards of yesteryear to our current problem of being hopelessly distracted by technology.

The internet constantly cops the blame for diverting us from our labour, to the point that there are apps – the irony! – to help us resist its pull, from growing a virtual tree to locking us out of social media. Obviously social media is engineered to hook our attention, but perhaps there’s something deeper afoot.

The book <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/barnabylashbrooke/2019/09/17/nir-eyal-tech-addiction-isnt-real-you-just-need-to-be-indistractable/#50e5047a1079">Indistractable </a>: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal attempts to answer that. Eyal himself tried every trick to keep focused on his writing, such as using a 1990s word processor without an internet connection, before realising that tech is not the problem.

He argues that distraction arises from emotions we’re trying to avoid. Scrolling brings instant relief from intrusive thoughts, just as I would say that lighting a cigarette quelled the same sense of restlessness. Only, smoking didn’t drag us away from our work and into a YouTube vortex.

Why is it that when we’re trying to work, psychological discomfort makes itself heard? It could be that the task itself is causing anxiety – like fear of failure – or it could be we’re so bored that our emotions have the space to emerge. (You’re unlikely to get an existential crisis in the middle of a Netflix binge.)

Melbourne psychologist <a href="http://www.hurstwoodclinic.com.au/matthew-berry.html#:~:text=Dr%20Matthew%20Berry,Substance%20use%20and%20addiction">Dr Matthew Berry </a>thinks distraction has become our number one avoidance technique for pain – more so than drowning it with drugs and alcohol. He says our brains aren’t evolved enough to handle what some researchers call “supernormal stimuli”. These include social media, gaming and pornography, which highly activate our reward system.

“I call it 21st-century syndrome and it’s a two-part process,” he says. “It’s difficulty sitting with feelings – many of which are caused by unprocessed emotions and-or social disconnection – coupled with the overabundance of shiny dopamine-y things that we can use to drown out those feelings. We then get over-attuned to one thing – like porn or Instagram – and then under-attuned to anything else.”

Esther Coleman-Hawkins works from home, dividing her day between multiple tasks: developing TV programs, recording workshops for her company <a href="https://www.mediamentors.com.au/">Media Mentors </a>and creating social media content. “I get most distracted when I don’t know the answer to something,” she tells me. “If I had to identify what was making me anxious, it would absolutely be fear of failure. Fear of not knowing the answers. Fear of fucking up.”

At home, these feelings can be harder to handle. “In an office your brain gets downtime when you go to the kitchen and talk to somebody. If you’re working from home, your brain doesn’t get that space. So I think distractions can be useful – it might feel like you’re just doing the laundry, but in the background you’re also problem-solving.”

It’s when we allow technology to be the distraction that too much time can get frittered away. And as Eyal says, “if distraction costs us time, then time management is pain management”. Berry recommends his clients break their task down into subtasks to try and narrow down which of the subtasks is triggering the fear. “Then ask yourself, ‘What is the fear about? Is it real, or is it just an old story of mine – such as believing I’m bad at something – trying to scare me?’ Sharing that fear with someone is a great way of disarming it.”

A good test of whether it is the task that’s the problem or whether the emotion is related to another issue is to see if you’re able to sit down and calmly read a book, he says. If it’s not task-specific, the next step is to dig deeper into that non-descript “argh” feeling by really trying to identify the specific emotion. “Name it, and then ask yourself: what does that say I need?” Berry says. “Do I need to talk to someone, for instance?”

According to Eyal, practicing abstinence by locking yourself out of your favourite social-validation feedback loop won’t work, because banning yourself from doing something only makes you want to do it more (you might have heard of the pop-psychology experiment in which participants are asked to absolutely not think about polar bears).

Eyal suggests making an “identity pact” by giving yourself a moniker. Just as you might say “I am sober” or “I am a non-smoker”, you say “I am indistractable”. “I’m down with that,” says Coleman-Hawkins. “I have a narrative of myself as somebody who can be really focused in the morning, and the more I tell myself that, the more it’s turned out to be true.” Eyal has some tech tips, too: to receive fewer emails, you must send fewer emails. Further, even if you want to respond while a thought takes you, use a program such as Mixmax6 for Gmail to delay delivery and thus give the recipient less time to engage in a back and forth.

When you go back to work in the office, opt out of time-drainers like Slack or WhatsApp that have connected you with your coworkers during lockdown. You could also try what Eyal’s wife does to deter their young daughter from chatting: fashion yourself a “concentration crown” (hers is made out of a cheap headpiece with LED lights) to signal that you are not to be interrupted.

Constantly distracted? Here's how to wrangle '21st-century syndrome'

The 21st-Century Syndrome

Distractions Can Be Useful

Unshared Fears Lead Us Into Distraction

The Identity Pact

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