Why is it difficult to maintain focus for long periods of time but very easy to spend a whole day doing essentially nothing (video-games, watching videos etc)?
In: Other
Interest.
It just boils down to genuine interest plus instant rewards in the game (,videos etc). Immersing oneself in any of these takes a lot of concentration too, we just don’t realize it because we enjoy every moment of it.
Same thing goes for people who enjoy other mentally intensive tasks eg: coding, maths, science. They enjoy every second of it, they feel rewarded when they solve the small portions of the big problems they’re trying to solve – they DO end up spending hours and don’t feel as tired.
You are not doing “nothing”, it’s not productive per society’s definition but games, videos, other forms of entertainment require just as much of concentration/focus – people have died of exhaustion by playing games for longer times 🙂
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