EPISODE 2
Storyline
Episode 2 is the rising action of the podcast’s narrative structure, where Pia started working on her artwork assignment based on the theme “Pandemic”. Pia decided to create her artwork in the form of an art diary journal. She gathers her friends’ and her own real reflections on how the pandemic has affected their attention span.
Inspiration
This episode’s inspiration is based on a random conversation among the YGMA team members during one fine day lunch. One of our members started to share her reflections on how she noticed that her attention span was affected during the pandemic. Even after the pandemic, she still struggles with her attention span issues. Because of this, everyone in the team started to reflect and share their experiences as well. We agreed that the pandemic truly affected our attention span, and sometimes we blame ourselves for being easily distracted. We also wonder if our short attention span issue is something that can be fixed. Therefore, this episode is an exploration on the effects of attention span during the pandemic and ways to improve one’s attention.
In addition to that, the idea of making a pandemic themed art diary is based upon individuals who share their personal pandemic life as online diary entries on websites, blogs, social media, etc.
Research Findings
The pandemic is a collection of many persistent major and minor stressful events. There is no factual data to what the COVID-19 pandemic has on our attention spans. However, most experts agree that mental overload and fatigue are the main causes for the decrease of attention span during and post-pandemic.
The unpredictability of the pandemic situation affects our inability to plan or maintain a regular routine. In return, creating a heightened stress level which causes our body to go into survival mode as a coping mechanism. Survival mode leads to mental fatigue.
Besides that, we spend an increasing amount of time looking at several screens during the pandemic lockdown. According to Dr Kalanit Ben-Ari, the over usage of screens causes addiction and over-simulation effects. The craving for immediate gratification leads to mental overload.
The lingering effect of the pandemic brain fog is also a real thing. All of these effects of mental overload and fatigue are the results for our lack of focus and short attention span. Luckily, our brains are extremely plastic. With the right ways, patience, and dedication, our brain is capable of repairing and thus improving our focus and attention span.