this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2025
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The vast majority of students rely on laptops – and increasingly AI – to help with their university work. But a small number are going analogue and eschewing tech almost entirely in a bid to re-engage their brains

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[–] electric@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

As “someone who gets distracted very easily,” he made the change to reclaim his attention span. Ditching his laptop gave him an environment where “YouTube isn’t around the corner” and he can focus on his reading.

This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.

Reminds me a lot of fellow classmates at my college who I discovered hate online classes because they say they can't stay focused. So I don't know how these "luddite" students plan to not get distracted when their job will most likely involve sitting in front of a computer.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (1 children)

This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.

I used to be easily distracted during online lectures yet had little difficulty following live lectures. It's a fundamentally different experience, for whatever reason.

Also, the attention span has to be trained. And training it by working without a distracting computer sounds like a good idea.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I had the opposite experience, in person lectures drove me crazy as an unmedicated adhder, I'd be constantly chiming in and answering every question, my legs would be going wild under the table and I'd usually be just doing something else most of the time on the laptop. Online is much much easier to listen to and get invested in at your own time and pace because you can be eating or vaping while watching at 3AM or whatever and nobody gives a fuck

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Doodle. I always doodled in my notes. Repeating patterns worked for me, because I am no artist.

I am still unmedicated, and method helped me a lot with lectures using pencil snd paper for notes.

Everyones different, I failed my online college courses. In person, I do alright. You may like online better.

But if you're forced to sit in lecture, fuckin doodle.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

Nah, that shit woulda never helped me and I wouldn't even know where to start and I never have, we had laptops open on lectures so I just wrote small programs about whatever concepts the lecturer talked about but to sit in the same place for 2 hours it was borderline impossible.

After entering the workforce it was just pure torture sitting in the office waiting to die 8 hours a day, I went through like a full character arc from arrogant to humble to desperate to hate at others to hate at self to finally worldly and gradually radicalized against the onslaught of alienation.

I came back for my masters in 2020 and it was fairly sweet all online.

Thankfully now many years later I WFH. Uni is far behind. Haven't handwritten anything in years, I'm almost curious to try it

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 19 points 12 hours ago

Attention span is cultivated, so is discipline. Reading about it is theory. Forcing oneself to do it, in increasingly sizable chunks, is praxis. I'm talking to myself here, too.

[–] DJDarren@sopuli.xyz 15 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

This is just avoiding the issue of having a short attention span.

And how do you improve your attention span? By not having distractions available to you.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 hours ago

That sounds like he's just not going to be well adjusted for the modern world where distractions will always be available. You don't get over a love for a drug by making it unavailable, you get over it by having it everywhere, yet refusing it.