Why do we get so distracted?

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The brain oscillates in and out of focus 4 times per sec.

Our brain becomes open to stimuli outside of our original focus.

That's 240 times per min that your brain stops focusing on the task at hand.

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This is why when something is very bright or blinking you will shift your attention.

*Advertisers take advantage of this.

At any moment our brain is focused on a single point of interest.

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We focus in bursts with periods of distractibility

in between those bursts. The brain uses this to look

at the rest of the environment outside of our focus

to see if there is something important going on anywhere

else.

This affects our behavior all the time!

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Work and school want us to perform

all kinds of hyper-focus task that

overburdens our already distractible brains.

Imagine driving sipping on coffee and talking

on the phone.

You are constantly switching attention.

This is what causes accidents.

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The brain takes pictures of moments like a film strip then

assembles them into a story.

To sum it up, the brain is taking snapshots of single

points of focus and collects background information

about the environment using your senses.

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All this information puts together

a narrative that gives us our complete experience.

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Modern society thinks distractibility is a bad thing

but this was extremely useful to early humans

and distant ancestors.

To be able to be distracted during an event

just enough to detect the presence of a threat and act.

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You reached the end!

Thanks for reading!

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For more on background information please see the following post. https://twitter.com/Th3Brainiac/status/1301906693446565889