Book tip: How to free ourselves from digital sensory overload
8.6.2023
Translation: machine translated
In his new book "Frisch im Kopf", neurobiologist Prof Korte deals with digital sensory overload and gives specific tips on how you can stay focused and learn effectively despite computers, smartphones and the like.
Digital media are omnipresent: both in our private lives and at work. And they probably even influence the way we think and feel. Neurobiologist Prof Martin Korte explains the mechanisms and background to digital sensory overload in his book "Frisch im Kopf" (Fresh in the head) and gives tips on when and how you can use computers, smartphones and the like to be more focused, creative and productive.
What you should do if you can't concentrate
Effective employees and learning can only work with mindfulness and concentration. But often enough, this is not so easy in a fully digitalised world. After all, our brain needs the same areas for concentration as it does for willpower. And this can be used up over the course of a day, especially if it is bombarded with distraction options - that's it for the ability to concentrate.
We understand willpower as the ability to suppress an action if its consequences contradict our long-term interests.
Trying to stay focused is therefore a constant competition between short-term rewards or distractions and the willpower that defends your self-defined, long-term goals. And this is where digital media come into play. Many apps are specifically programmed to make it particularly difficult for your willpower and tempt you to distract yourself. These patterns that tempt you to consume too much are called "dark patterns". They ensure that your attention is always on your smartphone.
In my self-experiment "One week without a mobile phone", I describe this as the "smartphone reach reflex". As soon as I wake up in the morning, my hand automatically goes towards my mobile and as the days went by, I eventually had to banish my constant digital companion to the basement so that I wasn't constantly distracted.
Dark patterns are programmed to make the app payment model work. The programmers must therefore be trying to entice us to switch the apps on again and again.
And we are exposed to this constant battle every day. Neurobiologist Prof Korte explains in his book that we work most concentratedly when we only have two things in our minds at any given time: The task to be completed itself and what exactly we intend to do with it. To achieve this, he provides tips for immediate action:
- Switch off your mobile and put it away
- Process emails consciously and with concentration no more than three times a day.
- Tidy up your desk and get rid of distractions.
- Write a to-do list and only continue working on it once a task has been completed.
- Take active breaks: sport trains your ability to concentrate in the long term.
- Switch between phases of concentrated work and letting your mind wander creatively.
Science editor and biologist. I love animals and am fascinated by plants, their abilities and everything you can do with them. That's why my favourite place is always outside - somewhere in nature, preferably in my wild garden.
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