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)?
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Because video games and movies are tuned to be as easy to “consume” by the brain as possible. There’s movement, sound, light, language so there’s always something to grab (and keep) your attention. And they all reinforce each other. Proof of how easy it is for our brains to consume movies is how easy it is for you to remember and tell the plot and many details of a movie many weeks later even if you see it only once. If you have trouble focusing on a task, it is either too easy or too difficult for your brain to process at peak efficiency. Simple, repetitive tasks are too easy to process and once you start resorting to using muscle memory, the brain’s attention will slip.
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