‘From a small click to an entire action’: exploring students’ anti-distraction strategies

ABSTRACT

Studies show that students often use digital devices for off-task purposes, but little is known about the psychological dynamics involved in this activity. The present article therefore offers a phenomenological study of how students experience and cope with digital distraction. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it is demonstrated that one of the major challenges with digital distraction is that it often occurs habitually: Students often ‘find’ or ‘catch’ themselves being distracted. To cope with this lag between initiating and becoming aware of distraction, they set up stumbling blocks that prevent distraction from unfolding on this prereflective level. Closing the laptop, for instance, transforms distraction from being a ‘small click’ that occurs habitually to becoming an ‘entire action’ that requires active decision-making. Sometimes, students employ digital tools that block the possibility of distraction altogether. These findings suggest that self-control is a matter of intelligently restructuring one’s surroundings to avoid succumbing to temptation.

KEYWORDS:

• Awareness lag
• distraction
• habits
• self-control
• stumbling blocks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).