3 ms·

Isn't this true for any source of distraction? What about a baseball or a book or a dvd or anything? The presence of a distraction reduces cognitive capacity?

• Dumblydorr 6y ago
  I doubt a baseball is on the same level. It's not magical, it doesn't connect to everyone and everything you know, and everything you don't. A baseball is a mere sphere, out of context on a desk. A phone is something we check 60 times per day, which can vastly affect our emotions. A play sphere from a dying game surely doesn't elicit such a range of possibility as a modern marvel of addictive programming, something that needs to be buried in the bag to prevent distraction?
• flanbiscuit 6y ago
  > Isn't this true for any source of distraction? Thought the same thing. Sure I can put my smartphone out of sight while working but I am on a computer with the same exact level of access that my smartphone provides. Sometimes I can get in a zone and sometimes I flip between work and distracting myself with sites like HN. I can answer SMS and DMs for all my services and social sites in the browser. Pre-pandemic you can throw an open office plan into the mix as a big distractor as well. I listen to non-vocal chill electronic music while I work and I bet there's some study out there showing that listening to any type of music while trying to work reduces cognitive capacity (I'm speculating here). I feel like managing distraction just a big part of life these days.