Cell Phone Nation- Digital Self-Regulation & The Attention Economy- What Teachers Need To Know For Student Success and What Students Don’t Even Know Themselves

By Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC

As an educator, you know all about personal self-regulation and how learning cannot happen unless learners have regulated nervous systems. How can you read and retain information when your nervous system is in an emotional flood of big feelings?

Put simple- You can’t!

But what about digital self-regulation and the ability students have to harness attention towards greater focus?

Now this is part of what is called the attention economy.

Focus is a most valuable resource.

In fact, excess screen time that goes unexamined by learners impacts in ways that TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels train the brain to expect fast, quick, and flashy rewards for paying attention.

In your class the reward for getting work done might even be getting an early start on more work. No flashes here!

With rapid reward brain, sustained focus on longer tasks like reading, writing, or solving problems can feel flat or boring for learners. Furthermore, multi-tasking becomes the norm and the reward system is hijacked as learners reach for the dopamine rush that comes from likes, comments, or viral content that is at a quick, flashing, moving pace with rapid swipes.

In the attention economy, learners are impoverished if schools ignore the opportunity to teach students how to harness strategies while teaching digital self-regulation for stronger focus as well as balance.

Where To Start

Explore a free 10 part series at Focus Lab where students learn to expand their attention span with different visual exercises at: https://www.softskillstrainingcenter.com/focuslab 

Other available resources for supporting youth to learn focus includes:

Available at https://www.softskillstrainingcenter.com 

About The Writer:

Catherine Patterson-Sterling, PhD, RCC is an educator of 25+ years with diverse experience in all levels of elementary, high school, and post secondary education as a teacher, counsellor, and clinical supervisor. With extensive experience in research and counselling, she understands the impact as well as sources of disengagement as well as chronic absenteeism on learners at all levels. She is also the creator of the new innovative programs "Screen Time School", "Success Not Stress School" (a new positive mental health program) "Future Planning School", and “Twenty” sponsored by Soft Skills Training Center and Patterson-Sterling Consulting and Counselling Services.