Qualitative Research Paper-Portfolio Version

Social Media and its Effects on Focus and Attention Span
COMM 410: Senior Capstone in Communication
Sarah Dignan, Myra Henderson, Hannah Johnson, and Delaney Otto
October 16, 2022

Socially Motivated: Qualitative Research Paper
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
3
Problem Statement
4
Research Methods
5-7
Findings
8 - 12
Future (Quantitative) Research

13
References
14
Appendices
15 - 52
Appendix A: In-Depth Interview Guide

15 - 16
Appendix B: Informed Consent Forms

17 - 22
Appendix C: In-Depth Interview Transcripts

23 - 50
Appendix D: Interview Links

51
Appendix E: Time & Cost Table

52
2
Executive Summary
The new technology of social media apps has given individuals the opportunity to spend
their time scrolling through posts, crafting their own, and moving between apps to occupy their
attention. This has left people, specifically those 18-29, with a noticeably decreased ability to
focus. Socially Motivated’s goal is, through exploring the negative impact of social media on
focus, to help people within this age demographic to make a change in their social media habits.
The objectives of our qualitative research is to explore the amount of social media usage
of our interview participants, as well as to look into their own perspectives on their social media
use, how COVID-19 may have impacted it, and if their new self-awareness of their own social
media habits has altered their desire to change how they use social media. Their insights will
lead us to crafting our future quantitative research.
Our method of gathering participants was through asking those close to us if they would
be willing to be interviewed. All were college students in the desired age demographic and had
experience with social media; the interviews were all held over Zoom. After the interviews were
conducted, we developed transcripts to help in our search for possible themes. Our key findings
were related to social media as a social norm, social media as a method to fill time,
procrastination, the effects of COVID-19, and the desire to change habits.
In the future, we will craft a Qualtrics survey to gather quantitative data, with a special
interest in participants’ screen time and push notifications. We will provide participants with
research about the effects of social media apps on focus and analyze if that makes them more
willing to change their social media habits.
3
Problem Statement
With technological advancements and the creation of mobile devices has come the influx
of applications, better known as apps. Many are based on sharing photos and videos with the
intention of social interaction. The variety of social media apps an individual has access to can
create continuous switching of and between apps at one’s own leisure and clearly signals a
growing lack of focus through decreased attention span (Berma et al., 2021).
Individuals, ages 18-29, who are likely part of the main demographic experiencing
negative effects regarding their focus as impacted by social media usage, may not be fully aware
of the effects of their usage or aware of their own social media usage statistics. Social media has
affected peoples’ attention span and helped create their inability to focus. This is cause for
concern because people may be aware that social media has negative effects, but do not know
how and why it is affecting their attention span and ability to focus. Social media affecting these
things is important because having a shorter attention span can cause low school and/or work
performance, as well as, not retaining information and significant details (Ashrof, 2021).
Focusing and holding attention is imperative to achieving a person’s goals (Ashrof, 2021).
Overall, the goal of Socially Motivated is to explore the negative implications of the
internet and social media, at large, and their respective effects on the focus of individuals aged
18-29. This exploration is conducted through in-depth interviews, surveys, and secondary
research. From these findings, Socially Motivated hopes to empower people through research
and self-actualization to inspire change in social media habits and approaches to social media.
4
Research Methods
Qualitative Research & In-Depth Interviews
Qualitative research is, at its core, an exploration into the attitudes and beliefs of a group
of people. It is not only important as a source of background information for a certain topic of
research, but also as an insight into the question of “why” people do or think things. Quantitative
research has its uses in collecting numerical data and looking into what exactly people do, but
qualitative research explains the reasoning behind that. Also, when diving into a research topic,
qualitative research can unveil things previously unthought of. It can spark ideas for new
questions, new explorations, and give a good baseline to craft quantitative research methods
upon. Thus, it was important to start this research through a qualitative approach.
The specific qualitative research approach used was in-depth interviews. While focus
groups could have been conducted, the topic of social media and its effects on focus could have
left focus group members self-conscious of their own distractibility and amount of social media
use. They might have not been willing to openly and honestly discuss this among a group of
peers. Also, with other class and personal conflicts in scheduling, it was more convenient to
conduct independent interviews. These interviews allowed for more candid responses;
interviewees could stay in their homes or other comfortable space while the interview was
conducted over Zoom. Also, independent interviews allowed for more attention to be put on
these specific interviewees; interview questions were shaped and altered based on responses, and
the conversations were more personalized than they would have been if an entire group was the
subject of the interview. These responses directly from UND students helped to gather themes
and information that can be used to better shape future quantitative research methods.
5
Procedures
Before conducting in-depth interviews, we first focused on looking at secondary research
pertaining to our broad focus on social media and its negative effects on focus. Following our
conducting secondary research, our group identified gaps within the existing information, and in
turn, identified what would become the main objectives for our qualitative research. As we
drafted our in-depth interview guideline, we worked to categorize our objectives and turn them
into questions for us to learn more about through the interview process and ultimately analyze
our data.
Our first objective was to learn about each participant’s level of social media usage and
the factors which influence their social media usage, at large. Our next objective was to
understand how each participant perceived their use of social media and its effects on their focus.
In addition to that, we sought to learn more about the impacts of various phone capabilities and
their potential to negatively contribute to a person’s focus. Our third objective aimed to
understand how participants’ attention span is impacted by both their social media use and
consequently affected focus. Furthermore, following our broad research interests, we sought to
learn about the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on participants who
were college students at the time. Our final objective was to understand if through the reflective
nature of the drafted questions and the interview at large, if the process of self-actualization
would lead the participants to desire to change their social media habits with the hope of
improving their ability to focus and an equally positive impact on their attention span as well.
Overall, six individuals, all current college students ages 18-29, were interviewed during
the qualitative research process. All interviews were conducted between October 6, 2002 -
October 9, 2022, via Zoom in Grand Forks, ND and the interviews ranged between 13 and 28
6
minutes in length. Each interview began with the interviewer introducing themselves, as well as
sharing the purpose of the interview and providing a general outline of how the interview would
be conducted. After the interview questions, each interviewer concluded by asking participants if
they had any comments to add and if they had any questions before concluding the interview.
Participants
Overall, our group interviewed six people who are all currently college students and are
between the ages of 18 and 29. In general, taking into consideration the criteria of age and
college status, the selection of students to interview was based on personal relationships between
the interviewer and the interviewee. Each interviewer asked the individual they wished to
interview if they would be willing to participate in an in-depth interview for the purposes of a
Communication course research project.
Student A, the only male participant, was asked to participate based on his known
tendency to be distracted by his phone and social media. Student B was asked to participate
based on her conscientious social media usage. Student C was asked to participate based on
meeting the necessary criteria and her active social media usage. Student D was asked to
participate based on her known addictive behaviors to social media and difficulty to restrict time
spent on her phone. Student E and Student F are roommates and were asked to participate based
on the general fact that they met the necessary criteria and are known social media users and use
of social media as a means of procrastination. In all, the mean age of those who participated was
approximately 21 years of age and the primary gender of our participants were female (5).
7
Findings
In order to get information about social media’s effect on focus and attention span, the
Socially Motivated team conducted six in-depth interviews with current college-aged students.
An analysis of the interviews was conducted to find themes throughout the interviews and
overall findings. Five main themes were found: Social Media as a Social Norm, Social Media as
a Way to Fill Time, Procrastination, Effects of COVID-19, and Desire to Change Habits. The
themes we have found do not represent the general population.
Social Media as a Social Norm
Interviewees stated that they use social media to keep in touch with friends or family.
Also because so many other people they know have it. They also stated they use it as a form of
communication or a way to check in on friends from high school. A male respondent commented
on his use, answering the question, “why do you use the social media apps that you do,” saying:
“Daily I'll check on the stories, and just see what people are up to. It's kind of interesting
to see what people are up to both in high school and college.”
To the interviewees, social media has become a thing of habit, second nature. This is an
interesting insight, especially since it is one of the reasons Socially Motivated discussed in
choosing this topic. One respondent, female, answered the question, “Why do you use the social
media apps that you do,” saying:
“Well, I guess I never consider why, like it's just kinda like the social norm I guess like a
lot of people are on social media so it's just kinda like I’ll get it too you know.”
This response seems to corroborate other participants’ responses as they have referenced
beginning to use social media because other people they know are as well.
Social Media as a Way to Fill Time
One of the most interesting tidbits from this section is that the majority of respondents all
struggle with TikTok as their biggest distraction, or a way they use to fill, or waste, time. Most
8
respondents find it to be addicting, or a way to lose track of time, getting lost in the algorithm. In
general, the respondents said they found that social media makes it easy to get sucked in and lose
track of time, with another interviewee giving Twitter as an example. Three responses stand out
as great examples describing this process. The first is by a female respondent, answering “Which
app do you find yourself distracted by the most and why”:
“I feel like it's probably Twitter just cause you're getting all these sources from all these
different people and they show up like all these accounts people retweet or it shows up as
recommended so you're like, that was interesting, I'm gonna keep looking and then you just kind
of get into a whole where you just…it just kinda keeps going from there.”
The second and third responses both touch on TikTok and how easy it is to get sucked
into. The second response is by a female respondent, answering “How often are you distracted
by social media”:
“A lot, especially with TikTok like I feel like it's so easy to get, like, stuck down the
wagon wheel of the For You page, and you're, you're scrolling, and you know, these videos are
only like what, maybe a minute long, not even. And all of a sudden like it's been like 5 hours
well, that's dramatic. But you know what I mean, like I definitely get distracted by it.”
The third response is by a male respondent, answering “Which app are you distracted by
the most and why”:
“I know I already touched on this but TikTok, I’d say, is the most, I've heard by multiple
software engineers, is like has one of the best algorithms of any social media app out there.
They're really good at getting folks on videos and having you just keep watching. It's just their
algorithm is so good at feeding you content. It knows what you want and because of the short
form factor videos it's hard to tell how much time you're really spending on the app. Compare
that to YouTube, which is my second highest app. With YouTube, you'd watch the 20 min video
you're like, Okay, I just watched a 20 min video like i'm good for the day. If you watch a 100
TikToks, you spend about 15 min seconds to 1 min for each TikTok, and you know I have
absolutely no idea how much time you spent. So it's very addictive and it's very hard to track
how much time.”
These responses all show the ease of falling into long periods of distraction without
realizing how much time is lost until it’s gone. This is one of the largest issues regarding social
media platforms because these periods of time ruin a person’s focus.
9
Procrastination
Procrastination is another shared reason for social media use and its effect on
interviewees’ attention and focus among respondents. Interviewees mentioned using it as a way
to avoid doing homework, but then getting stuck in the algorithm for a much longer period of
time than initially anticipated. One interviewee, male, described his experience doing homework:
“I was just working on a lab assignment that I should have been working on and pulled
up a YouTube video to waste 20 min for no reason.”
Other respondents described their experiences with social media as procrastination forms
as well. The first, female, answering whether they find they main used app to be more addicting
or as a form of procrastination, said:
“Yeah, I would see it more as procrastination because sometimes I scroll and I don't even
care what I’m seeing.”
Another response was when the female interviewee was describing her experience with
social media with negative and positive effects. She described it like this:
“Negative results I’d say a lot of like procrastination or time wasted on these apps. Just
not really using them for fun, even it’s more so just a way of passing time when I don’t feel like
studying, or and I have nothing else to do.”
Using social media as a form of procrastination, particularly from doing homework, was
something that was commonly found between the interviewees.
Effects of COVID-19
All interviewees said they were affected by COVID-19 with social media and their
attention and focus. The largest issues that were commonly described between interviewees were
in regards to multitasking, with watching lectures while the tv is on or trying to cook being the
most common examples. They also described it as harder to concentrate and learn as well as
having taken a toll on their attention spans. A male interviewee describes this:
10
“Since COVID, if you want to go online you can go online. Well, sit online with your
screen on. You could be sleeping through the whole lecture. No one knows. My attention span
for online factors has definitely decreased. I mean, I could watch videos for quite some time
before COVID. But there, definitely, just the overload of having to sit in front of my laptop and
watch lectures, for, you know, 7 h at a time, or whatever it is like. It was pretty extensive during
COVID, cause that's the only way we could do it. Yeah, it's definitely taking a toll on that.”
A female interviewee also made a good point about the toll online classes took:
“I was like always doing something else so now that when I'm in class like, I feel like I'm
not like I forgot how to do everything I forgot how to take notes, I forgot how to like learn.”
Another common factor between the interviewees was in regards to being around other
people. Interviewees said that coming back to in person classes after the COVID-19 protocols
allowed for it, it was difficult to re-adjust to the human interaction instead of that with a screen.
One interviewee, female, was able to describe it, saying:
“Going online for the pandemic there was a lot less pressure to study as hard for exams
and quizzes. It was easier to distract your focus from class with kind of multitasking, whether
you're listening to a class while you were cooking dinner or watching TV while you were taking
notes or maybe even scrolling on your phone during class, because you weren't sitting in front of
a professor monitoring you, you were able to turn your camera off. You didn't have to pay
attention during those classes, and you didn't have to study as hard. Now that we're back in
person, getting back into the habit of taking physical tests and quizzes or sitting in the classroom
having to focus for multiple hours on end. It's definitely become more difficult with our lack of
focus over those couple of years.”
Her response puts into perspective just how difficult things were when predominantly
online versus returning to in person. Her description is also reflected through the responses of
other interviewees. The use of Zoom, as a social media and classroom resource, during the
COVID-19 pandemic affected the interviewees’ attention spans and ability to focus. It
diminished their tolerance for virtual classes and videos.
Desire to Change Habits
An additional theme from conducting in-depth interviews was presented when the
interviewees were asked about the negative, if any, effects social media has on attention span and
focus and if they have a want to change their social media habits. One female interviewee said:
11
“I guess like I rarely think about it so now that like I’m talking to you I’m like oh it's a
pretty negative aspect of like focus. And I just think it's interesting and like seeing how it does,
like in a broad sense like you said, and then personally. I wish it didn't impact me as much, if I’m
being honest. It's kind of a bummer and you know just figuring out ways to try and keep it from
you know being such a big thing.”
Throughout the interviews, interviewees pointed out the negative effects of social media
on their attention span and focus. However, there were variations for the level of desired change.
One female interview spoke to her social media habits by saying:
“Yeah there is a want to change it. I mean I guess I can't say that everyone feels this way,
but I have had moments where I kind of just want to delete it all. I just want to turn it all off,
kind of cold turkey myself from social media. To really just break that habit and live more like in
the moment, instead of online.”
Another female interviewee responded to this by commenting:
“I’ve been wanting to change my social media habits for awhile and it goes back and
forth. I do really good most, or some, days and then there’s other days that are just on social
media all the time. But yeah, it definitely makes me want to change.”
There were interviewees that recognized the negative effects but were on the opposite
spectrum and did not have a big desire to change their habits or follow through with this change.
This was shown by a female interviewee stating:
“I know myself, and I know that that is gonna be really hard-would be really hard for me
to change like, I obviously, I want to change that. Like, I think I'll probably, probably get more
motivated to not, to pay more attention over like my zoom classes, and not do homework while
I’m doing them, unfortunately. But like, I mean, I'm gonna still be watching TikToks every night
before I go to bed, you know, like, like it's it the awareness like changes a little bit, but I feel like
I dunno, that's just the world we're living in today and that’s sad that I’m accepting that.”
Overall, there is a present theme about having a basic knowledge that social media can
have negative effects on attention span and focus but people have different views on their
willingness to change their habits.
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Future (Quantitative) Research
From the qualitative research findings, we have many themes about Social Media as a
Social Norm, Social Media as a Way to Fill Time, Procrastination, Effects of COVID-19, and
Desire to Change Habits. This is only the starting base for this research project. If there was
more time, we would have conducted more in-depth interviews to get more information on
college aged students' thoughts and options on this topic. While interviewing six students was a
great start, it would have been better to get more males and students in the higher end of our age
range to have a larger variety of participants.
Going forward with this research, we are going to conduct quantitative research to collect
more data and get a better insight into social media’s effect on focus and attention span. We will
conduct this future research through a Qualtrics survey. The survey will be sent out to college
students that are in the 18 to 29 year old range. In this survey, we are looking to get numerical
data, especially with data from screen time reports. More questions can be asked about how
many push notifications and pickups a phone user has. This numerical data we will be able to run
tests and back up our findings with data.
Additionally, from our findings from the in-depth interviews we found that most students
are aware there are negative effects of social media in relation to attention span and focus.
However, while students were aware, there was not always a strong desire to change these habits.
With our Qualtrics survey, we would like to present research to the survey participants regarding
this topic. After being shown the research, we would like to ask questions to see if there is a
larger desire to change. By doing this, we hope to empower people through research and
self-actualization to inspire change in social media habits and approaches to social media itself.
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References
Ashrof, V A. (2021, December, 4). Impact of social media on our attention span and its drastic
aftermath. Countercurrents.org.
https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its
-drastic-aftermath/
Berma, A., Guiterrez, M., Kim, D., & Martin, S. (2021, November 4). The effects of social media
on attention span. Society for communication research.
https://curiouscoms.org/2021/11/04/the-effects-of-social-media-on-attention-span/
Firth, J., Torous, J., Stubbs, B., Firth, J. A., Steiner, G. Z., Smith, L., Alvarez-Jimenez, M.,
Gleeson, J., Vancampfort, D., Armitage, C. J., & Sarris, J. (2019). The "online brain":
How the Internet may be changing our cognition. World Psychiatry, 18(2), 119–129.
https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20617
Kim, S., Kim, S., & Kang, H. (2016). An analysis of the effects of smartphone push notifications
on task performance with regard to smartphone overuse using ERP. Hindawi:
Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2016, Article 5718580.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/5718580
Paasonen, S. (2016). Fickle focus: Distraction, affect and the the production of value in social
media. First Monday, 21(10). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i10.6949
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Appendix A: In-Depth Interview Guide

Introduction
Hello, my name is ________, and I will be conducting your interview today. Thank you for
taking the time to be a part of this interview. An in-depth interview is a free-flowing
conversation prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer and say anything you
would like in this open discussion. If there are any questions that you are not comfortable
answering, you do not have to answer them.
Today, we will be discussing social media and how it affects focus and attention span. I am
interviewing you today to learn more about college-aged students’ opinions and experiences
regarding this topic. There are no right or wrong answers, you are free to share your thoughts,
ideas, and opinions as it is all important. If you have a different opinion or outlook, please do not
be afraid to share your opinion.
Your responses will be kept anonymous and there will be no identifying information tying you to
what you have said. With your consent, I would like to record this interview to not forget what is
said.
- Do I have your consent to record this interview?
- Do you have any questions before we start?
Opening
- We’d like to begin by asking for your name, age, and year in school.
- Do you use social media apps? Why or why not?
I. Social Media
- How many social media apps do you actively use? What social media apps do you
actively use?
Probe: What, if any, do you consider negative effects resulting from your social
media usage—specifically pertaining to your focus (i.e., decreased attention span,
inability to fully participate due to distraction(s), etc.)?
- Why do you use the social media apps that you do?
Probe: If “friends” or “family” are mentioned →
How does this influence your daily use? (If you use social media to “keep in
touch” or for relevance, how often do you use social media for that actual purpose
[relating back to the mention of friends and/or family]?)
II. Focus
- How often do you find yourself distracted by various social media apps?
Probe: Are you an Apple user? (If “no”, see section below)
If “yes”, do you have screen time set up? (If “no”, see section below)
→ If “yes”, would you be willing to share your screen time report
from the recent past? Week? Two weeks?
If “yes”, do you have app time limits set up? (If “no”, see section below)
→ If “yes”, how helpful do you find the use of app limits to be?
How much time did you dedicate to social media apps?
15
If “no”, if you had to guess, about how many hours do you spend on your
phone daily? Weekly? On social media?
- Which app do you find yourself distracted by the most? Why?
Probe: For example, would you consider this app to be more addicting or do you
use it as a form of procrastination?
- Do you find yourself multitasking with things that should require your full attention? For
example, perhaps you find yourself thinking you can absorb all of the information in a
lecture while doing things not related (i.e., checking your email, looking at other
Blackboard content, going on your phone for social media or texting, etc.).
Probe: If “yes”, please provide an example of when you notice yourself doing
this/when you’re more likely to do this?
If “no”, SKIP!
- What effect(s) on a person’s focus do you think there are from social media use?
III. Push Notifications

- On average, how often do you find yourself picking up your phone during non-related
phone activity (i.e., while studying, in class, driving, watching tv, etc)?
Probe: What are the increased negative effects, if any, of push notifications?
IV. Attention Span

- How would you describe your attention span? For example, “less than a goldfish”, “Dory
from Finding Nemo”, “able to get through an entire lecture without being distracted”?
Probe: Why? What influenced your answer?
- When do you find yourself struggling with your attention span (relating to focus)?
Probe: In what situations do you find this happening most often? For example, is
it when you are in a lecture that is not of interest to you? Or, do you find that your
behavior is unconscious?
V. COVID-19
- Were you a college student during the COVID-19 pandemic?
If “no”, SKIP!
If “yes,” did you notice a shift in your ability to focus (and perhaps your attention
span) while in-person/on campus, compared to taking classes online?
→If so, in what ways did your focus change?
Conclusion
- After completing this interview, how do you feel about social media and its effects on
focus and attention span? (Emphasize honesty.)
- Taking into consideration your previous response and this interview, how do you feel like
your self-awareness of the relationship between social media and focus will impact your
willingness to change, or not change, your social media habits?
- Is there anything else I should know?
[Thank the participant for their responses and for participating in the interview.]
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Appendix C: In-Depth Interview Transcripts
Interview Transcript with Student A
Interviewer: Hello! My name is Sarah, and I will be conducting your interview today. Thanks
for taking the time to do this interview. An in-depth Interview, which is what this is, is a
free-flowing conversation, prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer, and say
anything you'd like to in this open discussion. If there are any questions you're not comfortable
with answering, you don't have to answer them. Today, we'll be discussing social media, and how
it affects focus and attention span. I'm interviewing you today to learn more about college age
students, opinions, and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right or wrong answers.
You are free to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions, as they're all important. If you have a
different opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share it. Your responses will be kept
anonymous and there will be no identifying information tying you to what you've said with your
consent, I'd like to record this interview to not forget what I've said or what you've said. Do I
have your consent to record this interview?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions before we start?
Interviewee: I do not.
Interviewer: Alright, well, I'd like to begin by asking you to state your name, age, and year in
school.
Interviewee: My name is (removed). I am a senior mechanical engineering student, and I am 22
years old.
Interviewer: Do you use social media apps?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Why?
Interviewee: Mostly for leisure, and to relax and to watch things that interest me. Maybe slightly
use them to catch up with people and communicate with others.
Interviewer: How many social media apps would you say you actively use and which ones are.
They like ones ideally use, or most often.
Interviewee: Tiktok and Snapchat would probably be the only 2.
Interviewer: Otherwise you use Youtube quite a bit as well. I don't know if I count on social
media, it's technically a form of social media. What, if any, do you consider to be negative effects
resulting from social media usage? Specifically pertaining to focus. Examples of this would be:
decreased attention span, inability to fully participate in something due to distractions.
Interviewee: I don't know necessarily about decreased attention span but it's definitely easy to
lose track of time and throw off your day time management wise, if you spend too much time. I
know personally with tiktok it's pretty easy to spend a lot of time doing other things like
homework or other things that you should be doing. It's pretty easy to lose track of time using
them.
Interviewer: Why do you use the social media apps that you do, Tiktok?
Interviewee: I would say, I primarily use it to relax and to watch funny videos, or whatever the
algorithms thinks I should watch, but I I don't tend to follow many people I know on TikTok just
because I don't use it for trying to see and talk with people I know. I try to just see random videos
to relax or get my mind off of other things and get my mind to break from doing other work.
Snapchat, I would say I primarily use as an alternative to texting. So, I don't wouldn't even say I
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necessarily use it as social media, more like a texting alternative. I also do watch people's stories
usually, daily I'll check on the stories, and just see what people are up to. It's kind of interesting
to see what people are up to both in high school and college. I don't have instagram and I also
have- Well, I have a Facebook account, but I don't use it. I have an Instagram account, but I don't
mostly use it because most of the people are from High school, so I'll go on occasionally on
Instagram or Facebook. But often I don't.
Interviewer: How often do you find yourself distracted by various social media apps?
Interviewee: So do you mean by distracted, using it or should be doing something else?
Interviewer: Yes
Interviewee: Tiktok, I would say probably every other day, or Youtube, I was just working on a
lab assignment that I should have been working on and pulled up a Youtube video to waste 20
min for no reason. But you know, I'd say tiktok and Youtube especially are the usual culprits.
Interviewer: Are you an apple user?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Do you have screen time setup?
Interviewee: I do.
Interviewer: Would you be willing to share your screen time report from the recent past week or
so?
Interviewee: Do you want me to send it to you, or you want me to read it?
Interviewer: read it
Interviewee: Past weeks alright, just for the screen average 4 h 21 min a day. It looks like
Thursday was my highest with by far most use. I have TikTok at 11hr/week, Youtube at 5 hrs a
week. Snapchat at 2 and a half hours a week, and iMessage at 2 hr a week.
Interviewer: So do you have app time limit set up?
Interviewee: I do for Tiktok.
Interviewer: How helpful do you find it to be?
Interviewee: It's actually fairly helpful. I mean it's not, it's not foolproof obviously. It’s parental
controls essentially, so I'm using parental controls on myself which I have a password to my
home phone. So it's good at keeping you accountable for your time, because, Tiktok, you lose
track of time pretty easily. If you're just swiping through videos endlessly. So it's nice to have
just kind of a timer in the background, essentially going. And for me I have it set up. It gives me
1 hr a day by default, and then, after that 1 hr, you'll have to request for more time. So I get 1 hr
every day on it and then I usually spend more time on it than when they are obviously about 11
hr in a week. So it's I mean that's averaging like one and a half hours a day, so I usually try to
limit myself. There's a feature where you can add 1 min of time, 15 min or time or 1 h of time to
your limit and type in your code, so you can only add 1 min, once, so you can add 1 min without
having to type in. so usually, if i'm in the middle of the video and I have like a minute left all i'll
use the 1 min feature. But if I know I'm not actually needing to be doing something, I'll use the
add 15 min feature. So then all add 15 min, and then at the end of that i'll say, Okay, I need this
done for now, and I might come back to TikTok later in the day, and then I'll add another 15 min.
But I never add more than 15 min at a time, and I tend to keep myself more accountable because
I have to type it in. And I realize that I just wasted 15 min more often. So that's kind of how I use
it. I guess it's not foolproof, but I I went from, I think, about 22 h a week of TikTok down to 11.
So it's obviously helped.
Interviewer: So based off of your report how much time did you dedicate to social media apps?
So you said Tiktok was 11 h so if you want on the weekly basis.
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Interviewee: We got tiktok at 11. Let's add them up here as we go. Youtube was at 5. Snapchat
was that 3 and a half. I don't know, do you count iMessage? It’s just texting.
Interviewer: I don't know if our group had decided if that one was or not. You can count it.
Interviewee: Okay. Well, it's 19 and a half hours without iMessage and with iMessage it would
be 21.5. So basically around 20 h a week.
Interviewer: And which app do you find yourself distracted by the most?
Interviewee: I know I already touched on this but TikTok, I’d say, is the most I've heard by
multiple software engineers is like as one of the best algorithms of any social media app out
there they're really good at getting you folks on videos and having you just keep watching It's
just their algorithm is so good at feeding you content. It knows what you want and because of the
short form factor videos it's hard to tell how much time you're really spending on the app.
Compare that to Youtube, which is my second highest app. With Youtube, you'd watch the 20
min video you're like, Okay, I just watched a 20 min video like i'm good for the day. If you watch
a 100 TikToks, you spend about 15 min seconds to 1 min for Tiktok, and you know I have
absolutely no idea how much time you spent. So it's very addictive and it's Very hard to track
how much time you keep track of time, unless you have something set up in your phone to keep
track of time for you.
Interviewer: Do you find yourself multitasking with things that should require your full
attention. For example, maybe you find yourself thinking you can take in all the information of a
lecture while checking your email or looking at other blackboard content or going on your phone
for social media or texting, Etc.
Interviewee: No, I personally know I'm terrible at multitasking. So there is no way around that.
When I go to a lecture I put my phone on the table face down and I won’t touch it. I know I just
will not be able to learn anything. If something demands my full attention, even if I have an
assignment doom that's due at midnight and I have 2 hr to write a paper or something I'll take my
phone, and I'll just throw it across the room, and it'll sit on my bed for 2 h and I just won't touch
it so I'm pretty good at let me imagine myself cause I know i'm not good at multitasking and
some people probably isn't an issue. but for me I know it's like if I get watching a video or
anything more demanding than listening to music on spotify I'm not gonna be able to do either
task.
Interviewer: Well, what effects on a person's focus do you think there are from social media use.
Interviewee: I think there's a statistic out there that said, like the average attention span of a
person has steadily declined since the advent of social media, and I totally believe that so I don't
personally feel like my attention span has gone down a lot, but I could definitely see how it
would affect people differently. I definitely do know people that it's like their life is their phone,
and I swear to where their phone they wouldn't quite understand how to interact with people. But
I don't think it affects me as much but maybe it affects me more than I realize, probably like
everyone else.
Interviewer: So on average, How often do you find yourself picking up your phone during
non-related school activities, such as studying or in class, or maybe just other phone activities
such as How often do you find yourself picking it up during like driving or watching Tv, or…
Interviewee: I think they have a pick up in your screen Time app here. Yeah, I had a total of 707
pickups in a week. So my average is a 101 pickups a day of my phone.
Interviewer: Wow! What do you think would be the increased negative effects, if any, of push
notifications?
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Interviewee: Well, personally, I don't pay attention to my push notifications, and I barely even
notice when my phone is ringing when someone's calling me so they don't have much effect on
me, but they probably do have a lot of effect on people that have their phone sitting in front of
them all day, and they can just see, “oh, I got a message from someone,” so I mean, even if you
look at my my pickups here. When are my most pickups there? They’re iMessage and Snapchat.
So it's people texting me that's when I last one I'm picking up my phone and responding to him.
I'm not I'm not picking up my phone to go on, Tiktok. I've only done that 28 times in the week.
For iMessage, I've picked up my phone 190 times to respond to someone's text. I've picked up
my phone 133 times to respond to someone's text on snapchat. So you could say that, you know
well over a third of the pickups on my phone or just to respond to people's text. I don't pretend to
usually pick up my phone just to go on Tiktok. I usually only do that for leisure activities, but I
do spend more time on those once I pick it up so I would just say I don't use social media while
i'm in class or at work. But I do tend to use it when I'm studying or trying to study or taking a
study break, and I have found it helpful to break up a study session, especially if i'm gonna be
working on school work all night. It's easy to get bogged down and just not be able to do your
work after about 2-3 h like you need to take breaks. So it is nice to do like 2-3 h of work and then
say Okay, I'm gonna type in my passcode and I'm gonna do 15 min of Tiktok, and I'm gonna go
lay in my bed, and I'm gonna come back and start working again, you know, sometimes that 15
min turns into another 15 min. You got 30 min but sometimes you need that time. My brain is
going to go into coast and scroll mode for 30 min, so I can get back to doing some numbers and
some engineering work.
Interviewer: So how would you describe your attention span? Examples of this would be like
“less than a goldfish” or “Dory from finding Nemo,” or “actually able to sit through an entire
lecture without being distracted”?
Interviewee: I have a good attention span. I don't get distracted, I tend to fall asleep. So that
tends to be the main issue in lectures. So if i'm not paying attention to lectures mostly because
i'm not conscious. So let's put it that way. I don't tend to get distracted very often, especially
since getting to college, I’ve noticed that my attention span for things that are generally not
interesting to me has definitely gone down and I don't know if that's a factor of my social media
use or if it's more of a factor of just the content that's being presented to me, or the format of
college versus high school. I guess in high school it was far less acceptable to fall asleep, and
college is like Oh, if you don't show up to class, cause you're tired, but it's not you so and the the
form factors change right. Since Covid, if you want to go online you can go online. Well sit
online with your screen on. You could be sleeping through the whole lecture. No one knows. So
the accountability isn't there as Well, but I guess that's kind of unrelated to social media. I don't
say I struggle with that at all during class.
Interviewer: Well, the next question you already just started on. Were you a college student
during the Covid 19 pandemic?
Interviewee: Yes
Interviewer: With that, since Covid, have you noticed a shift in your ability to focus, and
perhaps your attention span while in person or on campus compared to taking classes online?
And then like having to go back like, in what ways did your focus change?
Interviewee: Well, I would say it's in my attention span for online factor has definitely
decreased. I mean, I could watch videos for quite some time before COVID. But there, definitely,
just the overload of having to sit in front of my laptop and watch lectures, for, you know, 7 h at a
time, or whatever it is like. It was pretty extensive during COVID, cause that's the only way we
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could do it. Yeah, it's definitely taking a toll on that. I mean when we switch back to doing in
person my junior year, I said i'm gonna do as few online classes possible because it's so hard for
me to learn online Now, because I don't have the attention span for the lectures i'll turn them up
to one and a half speed, and I'll crank the volume, and try to write really extensive notes to keep
me myself interested. But it's very easy to slip when there's no accountability. So I personally
like the in-person form factor because you're there in person, and if you're sleeping, everyone
else is noticing your sleeping. If you're not paying attention, the Professor is noticing that you're
not paying attention, and there's a little bit more accountability there. So I don't think my in
person attention span has decreased at all. It's mostly just the online form factor that's kind of
suffered, I think.
Interviewer: Okay, after completing this interview. How do you feel about social media and its
effects on focus and attention span?
Interviewee: Probably the same as when I started. That specific enough?
Interviewer: Sure.
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay well, then, how do you feel like your personal self-awareness of the
relationship between social media and focus will impact your willingness to either change or not
change your social media habits?
Interviewee: I mean i've already looked into this stuff, right, so I've already have the the
inflection point of Oh, i'm spending way too much time on tiktok and not getting my stuff done I
need to change this, so it's like it became a solved issue once I did the screen time and all the
limits and stuff. But it's still a known thing and it's something I wouldn't say I mean I thought
about deleting Tiktok for a while, because it was just I wasn't giving my stuff done academically
it was hurting me. But now I've kind of realized that, hey, you know, this is like it's a good way
to, it's a good medium to just use occasionally, and it's good for breaks and stuff like that. so I
don't think my overall outlook is changed all that much, and I don't think it will change. I might
say I need to have more heavily restricted after saying, Oh, I'm spending an hour and a half, you
know, a week on Tiktok. Well, maybe I should be spending an hour, or maybe I should hold
myself more accountable in that sense. I could probably shave off a half hour a day, and live just
fine without it. So other than that, though I think my usage is pretty minimal on every other
application and I really don't use it to talk with people, or catch up with people or have an
unhealthy relationship with. I know there's a lot of talk around how people only see the best side
of people on social media. So they have this preconceived notion that everyone's life is just
amazing, because they only post good stuff on there, like, I don't struggle with that, because I
don't go on Instagram or Facebook so I never really see what other people are doing, anyways,
cause I personally don't really care. But yeah, no I don't think it's gonna change all that much.
But I could be wrong.
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Interview Transcript with Student B

[Unrelated background comments]
Interviewer: Hello! My name is Myra Henderson, and I will be conducting your interview
today. Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview. An in-depth interview is a
free-flowing conversation prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer and say
anything you would like in this open discussion. If there's any questions that you're not
comfortable answering, you do not have to answer them. Today we will be discussing social
media and how it affects focus and attention span. I'm interviewing you today to learn more
about college age students' opinions and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right or
wrong answers. You are free to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it is all important. If
you have a differing opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share your opinion. Your
responses will be kept anonymous and there will be no identifying information tying you to what
you have said. With your consent, I would like to record this interview to not forget what is said.
Do. I have your consent to record this interview?
Interviewee: You do.
Interviewer: Thank you. And then do you have any questions before we get started?
Interviewee: Not currently.
Interviewer: Okay, sounds good. Alrighty, so we'll just go ahead and get started then. So how
many social media apps do you actively use, and what social media apps do you [actively] use?
Interviewee: Okay, I have Instagram, Twitter, which probably get into that later, Facebook…and
that's I think that's it. And I'm usually, I'm mostly on Instagram.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: I’ll scroll through Twitter in like dead moments, but other than that, it's mostly
Instagram, and occasionally, Facebook.
Interviewer: Okay, So you would consider Instagram though you're most actively used app?
Interviewee: Yeah. Yup.
Interviewer: Okay. And so, what if anything, do you consider negative effects resulting from
your social media usage? Specifically, pertaining to your focus, such as like decreased attention
span, inability [geez excuse me, I can't speak today] inability to fully participate due to
distraction, or like to distractions things like that?
Interviewee: I’d say it’s mostly like a time sucker cause I’ll get caught up like scrolling and then
an hour will pass and I’ll realize oh I had all this time to do this other thing so it's like it's a time
thing and a distraction cause it gets you away from what you're trying to achieve in that sense.
Interviewer: Yeah. So out of the apps that you listed, why do you use the social media apps that
you do?
Interviewee: Well, I guess I never consider why like it's just kinda like the social norm I guess
like a lot of people are on social media so it's just kinda like I’ll get it too you know. Uhm, I
know Instagram is fun to share stuff and that's like more, for me at least, it's more like a friend
based thing. And then Facebook is more like extended relatives and family. And I don't know
why I have Twitter but I do.
Interviewer: Okay, yeah. And so you mentioned both family and friends. So, friends, you said,
primarily like influence your Instagram use and family, or extended family I guess you said,
influence your Facebook usage, so in general if you're thinking about your daily usage of social
media apps, how do friends and family influence your daily use? So, if you use social media like
you're saying to keep in touch, or for Instagram you kind of hinted at like social norms,
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relevancy, things like that, how often do you use your social media apps for the actual purpose of
those things that you identified earlier?
Interviewee: So like… Oh, okay, I just need a minute for this.
Interviewer: No that's absolutely okay and if you need me to rephrase anything I'm happy to do
so too.
Interviewee: Could you repeat the question?
Interviewer: Yeah. So, you mentioned both family and friends as guiding like, when I asked you
why you use the social media apps you do, you outlined Instagram to [uhm] stay in touch like
friend wise, a social norm, and then family to stay in contact with family on like Facebook. So
how does that influence, like those ideas of family and friends, how does that influence your
daily use? So maybe in a bit of a simpler question, is that the kind of the guiding principle for
your day-to-day use? Or is that the guiding principle for why you initially began using these apps
and it's evolved into something else? And if it's evolved into something else, can you like expand
upon that a little bit.
Interviewee: Yeah, so I guess more initially it started as like cool, we're moving away so I’m
gonna keep in touch with like aunts and uncles from here, or like that sort of thing. And then
now it's just kind of like, I kind of feel like posting something so people can kind of see what I’m
up to. Like kind of talking about the social norm that I mentioned, like just kind of staying in the
loop and keeping people in the loop I guess. But it's not like… I guess on the daily I’m not like
posting so I just kind of look and see what's going on with no real purpose
Interviewer: No absolutely. and that makes sense, thank you very much. So how often [excuse
me] how often do you find yourself distracted by various social media apps that you use?
Interviewee: If we’re thinking like daily, I guess…
Interviewer: Yeah, any time period that is most beneficial for your thinking.
Interviewee: Okay I'd say like…It's kind of on a day-to-day basis I guess but if it's like an
average day where I have like work and then class and then some extra time like for studying I’ll
be trying to study… I get, I probably get distracted like 2 to 3 times an hour just like I can't focus
on the one thing for too long. So I'm like, here's this other thing that I can look at to fill my
thoughts rather than just sitting there empty.
Interviewer: Yes, I understand what you mean. And are you an apple user?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Okay. So, since you're an apple user, do you have [uhm] the monitored screen time
setting activated on your phone?
Interviewee: I don’t.
Interviewer: Okay. No, that's perfectly okay. [Uhm] And so since you don't have the screen time
[uhm] function activated, [uhm] if you had to guess about how many hours do you think you
spend on your phone? [Muttering] You've answered daily, weekly, and then on social, like, it can
be specific to social media or [uhm] like if you wanted to like categorize it like on social media
and on your phone in general…if you do other things.
Interviewee: I would say most of the time it's on social media because I mean like I text, but I
wouldn't consider that, you know what I mean, like, a social media platform. Maybe like weekly
total probably like 4 to 5 hours just kind of like spread out. But I'm sure it adds up much faster
than I can even manage to comprehend.
Interviewer: Yeah. And so, just to clarify, you would guesstimate that you spend about 4 to 5
hours on your phone per week?
Interviewee: On social media.
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Interviewer: On social media, yes.

Interviewee: Yeah. Yup.
Interviewer: Okay. And so, thinking about those distractions that we talked about a little bit ago,
and how you said, you know, within a given hour, I probably go on my phone 2, maybe 3
times… Which app, out of the ones that you actively use, do you find yourself distracted by the
most? And why do you believe that that is the most distracting app for you?
Interviewee: I feel like it's probably Twitter just cause you're getting all these sources from all
these different people and they show up like all these accounts people retweet or it shows up as
recommended so you're like, that was interesting, I'm gonna keep looking and then you just kind
of get into a whole where you just… it just kinda keeps going from there. So I'd probably say
twitter.
Interviewer: For sure. And would you consider this app to be [uhm] for example, more
addicting for you or do you find yourself using it more as a form of procrastination? And when
you think about like either or, so addicting or procrastinating, how do you see that playing out
like if you could like talk me through how it works in your mind and in your life?
Interviewee: Yeah, I would see in more as procrastination because sometimes I scroll and I don't
even care what I’m seeing so it's not like something I have to be looking at like in an addicting
way. But I’d say it's, like, well, it's right there, I don't want to do this other thing so now I’m
gonna go to twitter and see what I can find, like that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Absolutely.
Interviewee: I guess…if that makes sense?
Interviewer: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Yes [uhm] okay, so the next question: Do you find
yourself multi-tasking with things that should require your full attention? For example, perhaps
you find yourself thinking you can absorb all the information in a lecture while doing things not
related to the lecture that you're supposed to be participating in, such as: checking your email
looking at other blackboard content, not related to the class you might be sitting in, going on
your phone for social media or texting, and I mean the list could go on but those are just some
examples.
Interviewee: Right. I feel… Can you repeat the question before you listed the examples?
Interviewer: Yeah. Do you find yourself multitasking with things that should require your full
attention? For example, perhaps you find yourself thinking you can absorb all of the information
in a lecture while doing things not related to the lecture.
Interviewee: Okay. I… it's hard to say because a lot of my classes have been online so that's
kind of shifted the way that lectures kind of are cause most of the Ed[ucation] program has
shifted to online so my only in persons have really been like English, so that's very different
cause my professor will post like 2 half hour lectures and it seems so long cause I haven't had to
sit through one for so long so it's like this seems awful even though it's only like, it's only an
hour of my time. So, I guess with that, I tend to get more distracted in that sense. But if it's like a
different way of learning and I’m like engaged in the lecture [or] it's a discussion, then it's a lot
easier for me to not try to multi-task and do other things.
Interviewer: Yeah, for sure. And so [muttering] so, I guess what I’m hearing from you is that
like when you're in more of that like, not community necessarily, but like if we're following the
example of like a lecture where you like have in-person engagement, you find yourself less likely
to be distracted, where if you're more on your own, you're susceptible to more distractions.
Interviewee: Exactly.
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Interviewer: Okay, yeah. And I guess another example to like to help you break out, maybe of
like the educational realm too is, like, if you think about like watching a movie or watching a tv
show by yourself with your roommates, friends, whoever… [Uhm] Do you find yourself like
thinking you can still pay attention and catch the details in like a movie or tv show episode? And
probably let's assume you haven't seen it before and like you could be doing homework and still
like be doing everything you need to do or like going on your phone or thinking you can like do
something else and still pick up on [like what your main] like what you sat down to do.
Interviewee: If it weren’t something I have seen like kind of like you said like it's a new movie
or something I’m doing my best not to be distracted by other stuff in that way. But if it's like I’m
gonna turn this on for some background noise, I’m gonna sit here, I'm gonna “study”, and
probably not get as much out of it as I'd like to because this other thing is on.
Interviewee: And then again, like you mentioned, like watching a movie with like roommates
like that's different cause other people are watching this I’m like I wanna know what's going on
too. It's not like a distracted kind of state where if I’m alone I’m like do I care enough to even
pay attention?
Interviewer: Sure. Yeah. And, now, so like taking that really broad question and [uhm] thinking
about like your previous answers and just I mean even out of your previous answers… In
general, what effect or effects on a person's focus do you think there are from social media use?
And that could be like, it can be, obviously you can only speak to your own experience, so…
Interviewee: I feel like it really heavily affects like you said, like the focus right?
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: The focus somebody has on something? I feel like it really does cause you just find
yourself doing something else that's completely different from the task at hand and it's like I
don't know like what the science is behind it obviously, but like if… I’m trying to formulate my
words so that they make sense [uhm]… It’s just a distraction because you're seeing all these, I
mean like, this is bringing up like a different topic I want get too much into it, but like you see
other people's lives and you're like that's cool and then you're sending yourself into like a spiral
of like oh this could kind of be something I, you know what I mean, like you're just distracted by
other people and like how they present themselves online so I guess that's kind of out of the
realm but like to just see other experiences and not wanting to be part of the one that you're
experiencing.
Interviewer: Yeah, absolutely.
Interviewee: Did that come across?
Interviewer: So like being present?
Interviewee: Yes, exactly.
Interviewer: And I guess too like do you think that [uhm] so when the question says like what
effects on a person's focus… So you of course, like you're like, definitely there's a negative effect
and it removes you from being like present and accomplishing things like in your own realm.
[Uhm] Can you think like [uhm] is there like any other impacts on focus that you can think of
like relating to your own world? And I mean like I can try and like give you some examples, but
just [uhm] I mean if there's nothing else too, that's just fine. I just wanted to follow up.
Interviewee: Like outside of social media?
Interviewer: So I guess just in general like [uhm] so the question says what effects on a person's
focus do you think there are from social media use? So what you've listed is like being present,
so do you think that like, have you, do you experience [uhm] maybe like things like decreased
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attention span? Like do you find yourself struggling like if you have an essay question to write
like are you able to sit down and write the essay question without getting like distracted or do
you feel like the intervals of time that you can like focus are a little bit shorter? Do you feel like
[uhm] you notice that you're like more irritable if you like don't have your phone? Do you feel
like lost without like that… Like cause social media is attached to the phone, right? So like if
you don't like have that, how do you feel like in the [muttering]? Those are like some examples,
none of which you have to agree with, but if you have any other like thoughts that are sparked
from that.
Interviewee: I know you mentioned like the shorter intervals of focus time and I feel like that's
also a big negative that kind of correlates to social media and distractions for like certain topics
cause you can't stay in one spot for too long because then you're like there's this full other thing
going on around me and I’m not part of it which is the presence thing again, but it's like, you
can't just sit down and do something because there's always going to be something else.
Interviewer: Absolutely. Okay. Great. Okay, so on average, how often do you find yourself
picking up your phone during non-related phone activities? So you said that like 2 to 3 times per
hour and [uhm] so like the examples that we have are like while [so] picking up your phone like
while studying, in class, driving, watching tv, etc…I think we kind of already reviewed that, but
[uhm] what do you think, so taking into account you've already answered that, but [muttering]
what do you perceive to be the increased negative effects, if any at all, of push notifications on
your phone? And if you're not familiar with the idea of push notifications, I can definitely
explain a little bit more too.
Interviewee: Is that like when they just kind of pop up?
Interviewer: Yeah. So like when you download an app and they're like they want to send you
notifications and then like if you play a game they're like your hearts are full, you can play again.
So like something like that.
Interviewee: Okay. Yeah, I would… I try to turn them off like when it asks like will you allow
it? I'm like please no but then like there's like news stuff for emails and then that's like, it feels
more like an obligation, then like I can come back to this later. So… Yeah, I guess with that it's
you know kind of... Can you repeat the main question one more time?
Interviewer: Yeah. [Muttering] What are the increased negative effects, if any, of push
notifications that you've experienced?
Interviewee: Yeah, I guess I would just say like you hear a sound and you're automatically
gonna wanna look at it so just like the instant… some people like that instantaneous kind of like
gratification of knowing what just showed up on your phone… like that kind of thing.
Interviewer: Absolutely. Yeah. And so as we're like talking about push notifications and I made
the little joke [squirrel] and as you've mentioned and we've reviewed like that in like a given
hour if you're doing something that's not related to your phone you'll typically go on there like 2
to 3 times per hour. [Uhm] So outside of like the actual like time, how often you do it, how
would you describe your attention span? You could just like do some like general words [uhm] if
you like want to talk it out definitely you could do that. Like an example might be less than a
goldfish, Dory in finding Nemo, able to get through an entire lecture without being distracted,
and then why would you describe your attention span in that way, like what influences your
answer?
Interviewee: [Muttering] Like 15 to 20 minutes and I’d be fully there and then maybe I’d start to
zone out a bit and it's not cause of like my phone, you know it's like just other general things in
life that you're like, I'm anxious about this certain thing or like, why did that person say that, like
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just like questions that kind of run and then you're like overthinking. So I’d say like outside of a
social media sort of realm [uhm] my attention span’s at most probably half hour, for, you know
what I mean, like…Which makes work a little difficult sometimes but it doesn't get like bad…
Interviewer: Sure.
Interviewee:… but I do notice like my mind can wander within that span of like half an hour.
Interviewer: And so what would you say [uhm] influences, so like influencing your answer.
Another way of saying that is, what influences perhaps your attention span? [Muttering] Do you
attribute your shorter attention span to something like social media? Do you attribute it to other
external factors? I know you mentioned like [uhm] it's just easier like and maybe this is your
answer I guess, and feel free to tell me if it is, but [uhm] that it's easy to just get distracted by like
thinking about life in general, like aside from social media, like you just can get anxious about
something or thinking about something else and so…
Interviewee: And that I mean that was kind of my answer.
Interviewer: No. Absolutely, yes. And I just want to clarify.
Interviewee: And it’s like that feeling of, this is not therapy session, but like a feeling of dread
like I’m thinking of something else all the time when I should be thinking of the task at hand.
Interviewer: Absolutely. Perfect. Okay. Yeah and so [uhm] to follow up to like that idea of
attention span and the shorter attention span that you are talking about experiencing, when do
you find yourself struggling with your attention span most? So like in what situations do you
happen to [uhm] find your decreased attention span like [uhm] when do you struggle with that
most [uhm] like… And again, just for an example [uhm] relating like as a student, is it when
you're in a lecture that's like not of interest to you? Or do you find that your behavior,
[muttering] so your unconscious like attention span behavior, like you don't even realize it's
happening? Like those are just some examples.
Interviewee: You mentioned the lecture and I can only think of Brit[ish] Lit[erature] cause I
don't care. So like I need to care about kind of what's going on in order for me to keep a longer
attention span because I can, like if it's training for a job or like creative writing, like stuff that I
enjoy it's obviously gonna be much easier. But I mean with literature from the 1400s I just don't
care…
Interviewer: Sure.
Interviewee:…like it's just like general examples like if it doesn't directly apply in a way
that'll… no, not benefit me, but like in a way that I think is more interesting, you know what I
mean? Like that sort of thing, then…
Interviewer: Interest driven.
Interviewee: Yeah, exactly.
Interviewer: For sure.Yeah. Okay. And then, were you a college student during the COVID-19
pandemic?
Interviewee: Unfortunately, I was.
Interviewer: Everyone's answer ever, right? So did you notice a shift in your ability to focus,
and perhaps your attention span, though the 2 are very closely related, while in-person/on
campus, compared to taking classes online?
Interviewee: I would say so and I think it's not only because of like being online but it's also the
general environment like when we were sent home it was like I’m living at home now so it
doesn't seem as school like, because i'm not, I don't have to be there.
Interviewer: Yeah. And then so and I guess a follow up to that, a follow up to your yes is, in
what ways did your focus change? So you talked about [muttering] like your focus and attention.
33
span [excuse me] was shifted, like, your environmental scape impacted you [uhm] but if you had
to think about like imagining back to the like 18-ish months we were online completely, in what
ways can you contextualize that your focus changed?
Interviewee: Well I mean like obviously the first answer is gonna be like it's a pandemic in the
world is in shambles and there's all these other issues that we're seeing like in society and just
like generally so that like really… my mind wanted to focus more on that aspect rather than
school seems so insignificant right now why am I even here? Like that kind of thing. So I think
that would be a big part of it, of that attention span change cause there was just so much else
going on…
Interviewee:…that seemed more important.
Interviewer: For sure. Okay. And so those are all of the main questions that we have. And so,
just as we wrap up here, after completing this interview, how do you feel about social media and
its effects on focus and attention span? And please absolutely be as honest as you want. Like do
you [uhm]…yeah, I guess i'll just leave it at that. Just to reiterate it, how
do you feel about social media and its effects on focus and attention span? Broadly and
pertaining to you?
Interviewee: I guess like I rarely think about it so now that like I’m talking to you I’m like oh
it's a pretty negative aspect of like focus. And I just think it's interesting and like seeing how it
does, like in a broad sense like you said, and then personally. I wish it didn't impact me as much,
if I’m being honest. It's kind of a bummer and you know just figuring out ways to try and keep it
from you know being such a such a big thing.
Interviewer: For sure. Yeah. And so that actually segways perfectly into the next thought is,
like, so taking into consideration everything that you just said, how do you feel like your
self-awareness of the relationship you have between so… or that you have [excuse me] between
social media and focus, will impact your willingness to change or not change your social media
habits? If at all. And again, complete honesty is absolutely welcome.
Interviewee: I'm gonna turn on that screen time [uhm] for like the certain apps. Like I’m gonna
do that today.
Interviewer: Okay, yeah. For sure.
Interviewee: Like some kind of limit so it's not like oh I've been on this long enough I really
need to do this other thing.
Interviewer: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And then, in general, as I’ve asked you a bunch of questions
now and you've told me a lot about your focus and attention and social media habits and usage,
do you feel like there's anything else that I should know that would be relevant [uhm] to the
questions and topics that we've talked about today?
Interviewee: Nothing that I can think of on the spot
Interviewer: Alrighty. Well, thank you again so much for participating in the interview and
answering all of the questions.
Interviewee: Not a problem, I’m happy to do it.
34
Interview Transcript with Student C
Interviewer: Okay. Hello, my name is Delaney, and I'll be conducting your interview today.
Thank you for taking the time to be part of this interview. An in-depth interview is a free-flowing
conversation, prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer and say anything you
would like in this open discussion. If there are any questions that you are not comfortable
answering you do not have to answer them. Today we will be discussing social media and how it
affects focus and attention span. I'm interviewing you today to learn more about college age
students’ opinions and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right or wrong answers.
You're free to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it is all important. If you have a
different opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share your opinion. Your responses will
be kept anonymous, and there will be no identifying information tying you to what you have
said. With your consent, I would like to record this interview to not forget what is said. Do I have
your consent to record this interview?
Interviewee: Yes, ma'am.
Interviewer: Okay, do you have any questions before we start?
Interviewee: Nope.
Interviewer: ‘Kay. So just to open up with, we'd like to begin by asking for your name, age and
year in school.
Interviewee: My name is [Redacted]. I'm 21, and I'm a senior at UND.
Interviewer: Do you use social media apps? Why or why not?
Interviewee: I do. I have a lot of family around the United States and then around like, er
friends, in other countries. So yeah, I use social media to kind of keep in touch with them. Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you think like that influences like your daily use, like keeping in touch with
them, and stuff?
Interviewee: Like, do you mean like do I use it more because I'm keeping in touch with them?
Or what do you mean by that? Sorry.
Interviewer: I guess, um, how often do you use social media for the purpose of connecting with
family and friends?
Interviewee: So like things like Facebook and Instagram, I use that a lot to like see what my
family and friends are doing. Uh, Snapchat, that's for me to like talk to people that like I don't see
all the time like my best friend lives in Mayville, which is 30 minutes away. But I also just use
Tiktok for my own pleasure. So like half and half, I'd say.
Interviewer: So are those all of the social media apps you actively use, or there anymore, that
you also use?
Interviewee: Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube. Those are the big ones that I use.
That's about it, though.
Interviewer: Okay, how often do you find yourself distracted by using or by your social media
apps?
Interviewee: A lot, especially with Tiktok like I feel like it's so easy to get, like, stuck down the
wagon wheel of the for you page, and you're, you're scrolling, and you know, these videos are
35
only like what maybe a minute long, not even. And all of a sudden like it's been like 5 hours
well, that's dramatic. But you know what I mean, like I definitely get distracted by it.
Interviewer: Yeah, are you-do you use-is your phone an apple?
Interviewee: Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you have your screen time setup?
Interviewee: I think I do. You look at that. That's through settings right?
Interviewer: I believe so. I don't have one, but we wanted to see if some people who have an
apple have that setup and like-
Interviewee: I found it.
Interviewer: Nice. Does it say-does it have a screen time report?
Interviewee: My daily average-oh, this is embarrassing-my daily average is five hours and
fifty-nine minutes. That’s a lot.
Interviewer: That’s probably accurate for me, too.
Interviewee: I know, I kind of want to know what, what like the normal is.
Interviewer: Yeah. Because we were going to ask, like, our participants, like, if they’d want to
share, like, in the past day or past week, two weeks, I guess, to have some data on it.
Interviewee: Let me see. Let’s see. How can I-oh, this is week right there. Hold on. I don’t know
where-well, this week, my average was six hours, so that’s even worse. I don’t know where to
find it, like, are you talking like day-to-day kind of thing?
Interviewer: We were just looking for, like an estimate, I guess, of the past week or 2 weeks.
You don’t have to search hard for it.
Interviewee: I’d probably say that it’d be like close to six hours a day. So six times seven. What
is that, like 24? I don’t know how to do-I’ll calculate it. Six times seven…fourty-two! I said
twenty-four! Forty-two hours a day, I mean a week! That would be my weekly average.
Interviewer: Ok.
Interviewee: That’s embarrassing.
Interviewer: It’s fine. Do you have app time limits set up? I know some people on apple…
Interviewee: I do not.
Interviewer: So does it say specifically, or wait. No. I’m reading the script and it got a little
confusing on some of the directions, but which app-you said Tiktok earlier. So do you think
that’s the app you find yourself distracted by the most?
Interviewee: It is. I’m looking on it right now, and it is. There’s two-there’s two apps. Tiktok, I
have an hour and forty-five minutes, and Snapchat, I have an hour and eighteen minutes.
Interviewer: Hmm! Why do you think that those two are your biggest ones? I know Tiktok, you
said, just scrolling through the “for you page.”
Interviewee: Yeah, well, that and I do it like-if I have like free time or anything and I’m not
doing anything or before, like, bed even. I just scroll through Tiktok. Snapchat, it’s because I talk
to like I said my best friend is not in Grand Forks. So that’s the way I communicate with her is
through Snapchat. And I’m on that all the time.
36
Interviewer: So for Snapchat that’s a method of communication. For Tiktok and other apps do
you think this is more of an addicting thing or maybe to procrastinate on certain things?
Interviewee: Oh, that’s a good question. I feel like-I feel like it’s a procrastination thing. There
might be like a little bit of like addictiveness into Tiktok, because of like, when, how I feel when
I go on there like it's just like relatable kind of thing. And it makes me laugh like I don't know.
But I think it's mostly procrastination. Or really. I procrastinate a lot, so.
Interviewer: Do you find yourself multitasking with things that should require your full
attention, like thinking you can absorb all the information in a lecture or class while doing things
that aren't related like checking your email or going on your phone?
Interviewee: Yeah, if it's an online class, I will most likely be doing homework while I'm in the
class, or like things like that. Yeah.
Interviewer: Is it different for in person classes, or mostly online, where you find yourself doing
that the most?
Interviewee: It's usually online that I do that if we're in person, then I will not do that.
Interviewer: Ok. In your- how do I word this-what effects do you think there are on a person's
focus from using social media? If you think there are any?
Interviewee: On their focus, I feel like-so like, if I was trying to multitask, what effects would
the social media have? Is that what you’re kind of asking?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Interviewee: Ok. So obviously, like, I mean, I know this, and I still do it, so it's naughty, but
social media like, if, if there's social media, I'm going to be more paying attention to that social
media and not really caring about what's going on like a lot of the time, when I'm just folding
laundry or something I’m watching Tiktok or doing something, and sometimes I'll get distracted
and I'll literally just like start watching Tiktoks and forget that I'm folding my laundry like
definitely, not focusing.
Interviewer: On average, how often do you find yourself picking up your phone during an
activity that isn't related to utilizing your phone?
Interviewee: Probably every single time I do something I always like have my phone in my back
pocket, and like even to just like check the time. So like, like, obviously, I have an apple watch.
So I look at that. But like there's a lot. There's a lot of times where I'll pick up my phone and just
like quick do something or like text someone that texted me a question or something I don't
know I it's always there
Interviewer: With like that text notification, do you think that push notifications and stuff like
that influence how often you pick up your phone?
Interviewee: Well, especially when it's on my-because that's something I have noticed with an
apple watch like it buzzes my arm so like right away, like, I can look-if it’s someone I want to
answer, I go to my phone like right away and like, answer them usually unless I'm like super
busy, but like, it's definitely with that buzz, it-it makes me go on my phone a lot more.
Interviewer: Yeah. How would you personally describe your attention span? Like…
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Interviewee: Very short. I have ADHD, so it's like I'm doing good right now, but if it's, if it's
something that I'm not interested, or I shouldn't say that if it's something I'm interested or not
interested in, but like the person that's giving me information, is like boring, then my attention
span like I'll like, just stare off into space or like, I can do this thing where I just unfocus, I don't
know if that's a normal thing but like my eyes just unfocus. Yeah.
Interviewer: I think I’ve heard people being able to do that.
Interviewee: Yay.
Interviewer: You answered the next question, I’m just trying to…
Interviewee: Oh, no, you’re good.
Interviewer: Yeah, it was like, when do you find yourself struggling with your attention span
and you said, like, if someone has a boring voice and stuff like that.
Interviewee: Yeah, if someone's like monotone, girl, it's so hard, it's so hard and like a lot of the-
even with athletic training, which is what I'm majoring in, obviously, but like, I'm so interested
in, in that stuff, and sometimes there'll be people like talking, and they're talking like this
[imitates monotone voice]. And it's so boring, and I just like could not. I could not do it.
Interviewer: Yeah. Were you a college student during the covid-19 pandemic? I know the
answer to this one, but it’s on the interview.
Interviewee: Yes, yes, I was. Unfortunately.
Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your ability to focus while in person and on campus
compared to taking classes online?
Interviewee: Yeah, so, before covid we were all in person obviously and that shift to online and
pretty much having to like teach yourself was like insane and I feel like I didn’t work as hard as I
should have. And then now going back in person like it is like super hard to like focus now,
because I feel like when we have that break like even over zoom I was like always doing
something else so now that when I'm in class like, I feel like I'm not like I forgot how to do
everything I forgot how to take notes, I forgot how to like learn. If that makes sense.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Interviewee: Did that answer that question?
Interviewer: Yes, yeah. So it's like being online on zoom you feel, maybe like exacerbated, if
that's right word.
Interviewee: I think so. It's a big word.
Interviewer: Yeah like made it harder to focus and then when you returned it was still hard even
though you were in that space again?
Interviewee: Yeah, yeah, and and like I was excited to go back into person because-into person?
In person, because because you know, like, it's just so, it’s nice to have, like, people in a room
with you. In a way it like it helped because then I was more excited to go to class because you
know…But then again, now that-cause after covid, I still have online classes like, like that's I
feel like, that's the thing that's never gonna change. Like we’re just going to have online classes
now. So that juggle is kind of hard to do.
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Interviewer: Yeah. So after completing this interview, how do you feel honestly about social
media and its effects on focus and attention span?
Interviewee: Honestly like, I always knew that I got distracted by social media, and I used it a
lot, and I feel like it honestly sucks that people are living on a screen nowadays like we're not
enjoying-we're enjoying the world through a screen, I should say I think I, I think I might have
did say that I don't know, but either way, like we we're not focusing on the world around us like,
that's right outside the door. We're just living through a screen, and I think that's like insane. I
don’t like that.
Interviewer: Yeah. Taking into consideration your previous response and this interview, how do
you feel like your self-awareness of the relationship between social media and focus will impact
your willingness to change or not change your social media habits?
Interviewee: I know myself, and I know that that is gonna be really hard-would be really hard
for me to change like, I obviously, I want to change that. Like, I think I'll probably, probably get
more motivated to not, to pay more attention over like my zoom classes, and not do homework
while I’m doing them, unfortunately. But like, I mean, I'm gonna still be watching Tiktoks every
night before I go to bed, you know, like, like it's it the awareness like changes a little bit, but I
feel like I dunno, that's just the world we're living in today and that’s sad that I’m accepting that.
But at the same time, like…if that makes sense.
Interviewer: Yeah, I think so, yeah. Is there anything else I should know?
Interviewee: I don’t think so.
Interviewer: Okay. It’s just a final question to sort of get any other things that the interviewee is
thinking about I guess. Well, thank you for your responses, and participating in the interview.
Interviewee: You’re welcome.
Interviewer: ‘Kay. I’m now going to stop the recording.
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Interview Transcript with Student D
Interviewer: Hello, my name is Sarah and I'll be conducting your interview today. Thank you
for taking time to be part of this interview and in depth interview, which is what this is, is a free
flowing conversation which is prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer and say
anything you would like during this open discussion. If there are any questions you're not
comfortable answering, you don't have to answer them. Today we'll be discussing social media
and how it affects focus and attention span. I'm interviewing you today to learn more about
College age students' opinions and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right or wrong
answers. You're free to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it is all important. If you have
a different opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share it. Your responses will be kept
anonymous and there will be no identifying information tying you to what you've said. With your
consent, I'd like to record this interview to not forget what I said. Do I have your consent to
record this interview?
Interviewee: Yes
Interviewer: And do you have any questions before we start?
Interviewee: No
Interviewer: Well, I’d like to start by having you state your name, age, and year in school.
Interviewee: My name is (redacted), I am 19 years old, and I am a sophomore here at UND.
Interviewee: Yes
Interviewer: Why?
Interviewee: To feel more connected to people.
Interviewer: Okay, how many social media apps would you say you actively use?
Approximately.
Interviewee: Around 3 or 4.
Interviewer: And which ones would you say you actively use?
Interviewee: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat,
Interviewer: OK, what, if any, do you consider would be negative effects resulting from social
media usage, specifically pertaining to your focus and example of this would be decreased
attention span or your an inability to participate fully due to being distracted?
Interviewee: Probably Instagram & TikTok
Interviewer: And what would the negative effect be about that?
Interviewee: TikTok
Interviewer: Any why would you say that? What influenced your answer?
Interviewee: Well, really, ever since I got to college I haven't been able to focus very well. So
I've found myself more and more distracted, trying to look for other distractions.Always
multitasking can't focus on one thing at a time.
Interviewer: Do you think social media is one of the reasons you find yourself where you can’t?
Where you need to be distracted all the time?
Interviewee: I think it could definitely be part of the contribution.
Interviewer: When do you find yourself struggling with your attention span or your ability to
focus? Like in what situations do you find this happening most often? For example, like, is it
when you're in a lecture that is super boring? Or do you find that maybe your behavior is
unconscious and you just don't even realize you're doing it?
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Interviewee: Umm. Definitely during a lecture. Mostly mostly like when I'm doing something
that I don't want to be doing, but I like feel like I have to do it. Then I have more trouble
focusing.
Interviewer: Were you a college student during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Interviewee: Umm. Kind of, but it was more towards the very end.
Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your ability to focus and perhaps your attention span
while in person or on campus compared to classes online in your case? In high school versus
coming to college and having classes online.
Interviewee: Yeah, it was a lot harder to do classes online because of all the different
distractions when you're at home. Seeing there's a person there that's actually teaching you
something and it's not prerecorded or it's just a person behind the screen. Getting used to the
human interaction again.
Interviewer: Yep. So, after this interview is completed, how do you feel about social media nad
its effects on focus and attention span?
Interviewee: It definitely negatively affects.
Interviewer: Okay, and then taking into consideration that you, you just said that and the rest of
this interview, how do you feel like your personal self-awareness of the relationship between
social media and focus will impact your willingness to change, or maybe not change, your social
media habits?
Interviewee: Could you repeat that?
Interviewer: In other words, has any part of this conversation made you think more about your
social media habits? And has it made you any more like self aware of the relationship between
social media and focus and your habits? Has any part of this conversation made you want to
change it, or maybe not change your habits?
Interviewee: I’ve been wanting to change my social media habits for awhile and it goes back
and forth. I do really good most, or some, days and then there’s other days that are just on social
media all the time. But yeah, it definitely makes me want to change.
Interviewer: Is there anything else I should know?
Interviewee: I don’t think so.
Interviewer: Alright, well, thank you for your responses and for participating in this interview.
Interviewee: Thank you.
41
Interview Transcript with Student E
Interviewer: Hi! My name is Hannah, and I will be conducting your interview today. Thank you
for taking time to be a part of this interview. An in-depth interview is a free flowing
conversation, prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel for you to answer and say anything you
would like in this open discussion. If there are any questions you are not comfortable answering
you do not have to answer them. Today, we will be discussing social media and how it affects
your attention span and focus. I am interviewing you today to learn more about college age,
students, opinions, and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right or wrong answers,
feel free to share your thoughts, ideas, opinions, as it is all important. If you have a different
opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share it. Your responses will be kept anonymous,
and there are no identifying information tying you to what you have said. With your consent I’d
like to record this interview as to not forget to what is said. Do I have your consent to record this
interview?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions before we start?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: Okay. Sounds good. So I’d like to begin by asking you your age and year in school.
Interviewee: I'm 23 and I’m a second year grad student.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Why?
Interviewee: Mostly for entertainment, I guess. It also depends on what you consider social
media.
Interviewer: Okay, what would you consider social media?
Interviewee: Like Twitter and Facebook. And then, and I don't use Instagram I don't know if
you count TikTok as social media either.
Interviewer: Gotcha sweet. How many social media apps do you actively use in what your
definition of social media is?
Interviewee: 3.
Interviewer: What if any, do you consider any positive or negative effects from your social
media usage.
Interviewee: I get distracted from stuff sometimes, so I’ll just end up watching TikTok for like 3
hours instead of doing something that probably should have.
Interviewer: I know I kinda asked this earlier why do you social media and you said mainly for
entertainment. Are there any other cases where you use social media?
Interviewee: Usually to keep up with like family or just random people on Facebook. I guess
sometimes, and sometimes to get like, not necessarily news, but like updates from what I want to
follow on Twitter.
Interviewer: How often do you find yourself distracted by various social media apps?
Interviewee: Fairly often.
42
Interviewer: Do you have the screen time set up on your phone?

Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Would you be willing to share your screen time report from either this week or last
week?
Interviewee: Right now?
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: Okay.
Interviewer: Does it tell you your last week's average for screen time usage?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: And what would that be?
Interviewee: 6 hours and 51 minuets.
Interviewer: Do you have any app limits? So, for example, if you put like a time limit on a
social media app, for example, do you have any of those setup?
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: Do you have a reason why you don't have them set up?
Interviewee: I know that if I did I would just ignore them anyways, so what's the point.
Interviewer: According to your screen time report which apps you find yourself using the most
with social media?
Interviewee: TikTok, Snapchat I guess is considered social media and then Twitter.
Interviewer: Do you find those apps to be more addicting, or uses a form of procrastination or
distraction or example?
Interviewee: TikTok would probably be more like addicting, and something to just pass the time
as well. So kind of both. Snapchat I mostly just used to talk to people. I don't really just go on it
for no reason unless I’m looking at stories in the morning.
Interviewer: Do you find yourself multitasking with things that normally would require your
full attention? Multitasking while doing that thing but also being on social media such as like
going on your phone during class?
Interviewee: I don't go on my phone during class.
Interviewer: Do you have any other instances where you try to multitask while also being on
your phone?
Interviewee: I mean sometimes I’ll like listen to something while I'm getting ready in the
morning.
Interviewer: What effects on a person's focus do you think there are from social media usage?
Interviewee: Can you repeat the question?
Interviewer: Yeah, what effects on a person's focus. So we've been talking about in regards to
social media. Do you think there are from the usage of social media, like do you think there's
effects on focus?
Interviewee: I mean there might be it, cause it depends on the time because if I need to actually
study. I won't go on my phone but if I’m not like that serious about it I can get distracted and just
go on that instead.
43
Interviewer: Now, moving on to push notifications. On average, how often do you find yourself
picking up your phone during a non-related like phone activity? Like such as like when you're
studying, you said you don't in class, driving watching, TV. How often do you think you just pick
up your phone?
Interviewee: Probably pretty often like if I'm watching TV, I usually play a game on my phone
at the same time. I don't use look at my phone when I’m driving either. But if I get like a text or
if I get multiple texts, I’ll glance at it and see if it's something important to happening, but I try
not to.
Interviewer: Do you think there are any negative or positive effects with push notifications?
Interviewee: They can make you like, grab your phone more because you hear it buzz. And
you're like, oh, is someone trying to talk. Or half the time it's just like Twitch telling me that
someone's going live and I’m like, okay, I don't care right now.
Interviewer: How would you describe your attention span?
Interviewee: I don't think it's real short it's pretty long. I have to sit through class for like 4 hours
or more so.
Interviewer: Are you able to sit through like that 4 hour class without being distracted?
Interviewee: Sometimes, they usually give us some breaks so it's like I have to make myself
focus because it gets really tiring, but I can usually focus and listen or work on homework or
something.
Interviewer: When do you find yourself struggling with your attention span? You said you had
a pretty long attention span, so if any, do you find yourself struggling with your attentions?
Interviewee: When I'm tired yeah, you find myself struggling with it. Or if it's yeah like early in
the morning or if it's something that I don't need to like fully like throw myself into, while I’m
studying.
Interviewer: Do you find, like your behavior of that to be like unconscious of just being like
your attention span being shorter, or anything. Or is it a conscience like you’re like oh, I want to
go check my phone, or is it just unconscious thing to just pick it up.
Interviewee: Probably more unconscious to just grab my phone.
Interviewer: Were you a college student during the Covid 19 pandemic?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your ability to focus and perhaps your attention span
while in person, on campus compared to taking online classes?
Interviewee: Yeah, I would be on my phone during Zoom or I would be distracted by like when
it was like the lockdown. I'd be like distracted by cats or my parents or my sibling, and just like a
bunch of random things, and you're sitting in the same play, the same place for a really long time.
That it just like was not good for learning anything.
Interviewer: Do you think that has affected how your focus is now?
Interviewee: Probably a little bit if I’m like on my computer it's I usually get distracted more if
I’m like watching an online lecture, then versus being in person.
44
Interviewer: So we're wrapping up this interview. After completing this interview, how do you
feel about social media and its effects on focus and attention span?
Interviewee: I feel pretty much the same.
Interviewer: Taking into consideration your previous response that you feel pretty much the
same. This might not fully relate but how do you feel like your self-awareness of the relationship
between social media and focus will impact like a willingness to change social media habits.
But since you feel that there's not much of a difference do you think there's anything that you
would like to change with social media habits or are you okay with where they’re at?
Interviewee: I’m fine with where they are I don't think they've been detrimental to me in any
way. So I’m not gonna lie and tell you that I’m gonna change anything.
Interviewer: Yeah, I appreciate you, answering honestly. Is there anything else I should know, or
anything else you wanted to add?
Interviewee: Nope.
Interviewer: Well, thank you for your time, and for participating in this interview.
Interviewee: You’re welcome.
45
Interview Transcript with Student F
Interviewer: Hello. My name is Hannah and I’ll be conducting your interview today. Thank you
for talking to me and taking time to be a part of this interview. An in-depth interview is a free
flowing conversation, prompted by questions that I will ask. Feel free to answer and say anything
you would like in this open discussion. If there are any questions that you're not comfortable
answering you do not have to answer them. Today we will be discussing social media and how it
affects attention span and focus. I'm interviewing you today to learn more about college age
students, opinions, and experiences regarding this topic. There are no right around answers. Feel
free to share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions as it is all important. If you have a different
opinion or outlook, please do not be afraid to share your opinion. Your responses will be kept
anonymous, and there will be no identifying information tying you to what you have said. With
your consent, I would like to record this interview as to not forget what is said. Do I have your
consent to record this interview?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Do you have any questions before we start.
Interviewee: No.
Interviewer: Okay, well, I’d like to begin by asking you your age, and year in school.
Interviewee: I am 21 years old, and I’m a senior.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Why do you use social media apps?
Interviewee: I feel like It's kind of a standard in our generation to use these apps to keep up with
others around us and keep in contact or up to date on what's happening in everyone's lives.
Interviewer: How many social media apps do you actively use?
Interviewee: I’d say maybe 3 to 4.
Interviewer: And what would those social media apps be?
Interviewee: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Interviewer: What if any, do you consider negative or positive results of your social media
usage?
Interviewee: Negative results I’d say a lot of like procrastination or time wasted on these apps.
Just not really not really using them for fun even it's more so just a way of past time when I don't
feel like studying, or and I have nothing else to do. Positive, I mean like I said, the intention of
the apps just to keep up with others around me so people that I may not see every day or may not
frequently be in contact with anymore. I'm able to see updates on their lives things that might be
happening with them and provide encouragement or support or just say like, “Hey it's good to
see you're doing well.”
Interviewer: Do you have any effects relating particularly to focus or attention span that you
have noticed with yourself?
Yeah, I would definitely say that social media is an easy distraction for me to turn to when I don't
wanna focus.
46
Interviewer: How often do you find yourself distracted by these various social media apps?
Interviewee: A lot. maybe like once every hour if I can. If I’m, not actively in class or at work, I
find myself frequently just scrolling on an app.
Interviewer: Are you Apple user?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Would you be willing to share your screen time report in this interview.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Would you be willing to share your daily average from last week?
Interviewee: Yeah, last week’s average was 2 hours and 53 minutes.
Interviewer: Then do you use those app time limits on your phone where you have like a set
amount of time for each app, and then the app notifies you when you've used up that time?
Interviewee: Not currently, but I have in the past.
Interviewer: Why have you used them in the past and why don't you use them now?
Interviewee: I used them in the past as a way to promote my productivity. And currently the
main reason I haven't turned them back on is with the summer break I turn them off, cause I
wasn't as worried about my productivity level. However, getting back to school, I definitely
should turn them back on I just haven't gotten around to yet.
Interviewer: Do you find them useful when you do have them on?
Interviewee: I do, especially if I like set up password on it so it's not as easy to skip past the
time limit
Interviewee: Kind of going back looking at your screen report, what apps do you find yourself
using the most frequently?
Interviewee: Social media.
Interviewer: Is there one social media app in particular that's the highest?
Interviewee: TikTok.
Interviewer: Does it say what your past week's average was?
Interviewee: 4 hours and 59 minuets.
Interviewer: Okay, thank you for sharing. Why do you think you would be distracted on TikTok
in particular the most?
Interviewee: I supposed I would say it's the easiest one to waste time on. I mean the feed is
catered towards your interests so once you hop on the app there's funny videos, entertaining
videos, educational videos, whatever it may be that cater towards your specific interest and it's
easy to get lost in just scrolling looking at the next video. You also don't often realize how long
the videos are. They used to be limited to 15 to 30 second videos and now you can record up to a
3 minute video so you don't realize when you're just scrolling through the entertainment, that you
might be watching 15 minutes videos in a row, and suddenly you've killed a whole hour.
Interviewer: Would you say you find the out more addicting or more used as a form of
procrastination?
47
Interviewee: I would say, when I go to open it's more used as a form of procrastination, but the
length of time I spend on it becomes more addiction then procrastination, because I’m hooked
into what I’m watching, and I just want to continue watching it it's not easy to stop.
Interviewer: Do you find yourself multitasking with things that should require full attention. For
example, perhaps you find yourself thinking you can absorb all the information in a class while
doing things not related, such as checking your email, looking at Blackboard or like looking at
stuff on your phone.
Interviewee: Yes. Do you need me to provide examples?
Interviewer: Yeah. Could you provide an example of that?
Interviewee: Yeah. Most of the time during class I try my best to stay focused, but I do
frequently find myself if I’m getting bored with the content either like you said, checking my
email or working on projects related to a different class or maybe just something completely
outside of that class. such as a group I’m involved in, or a club on campus.
Interviewer: What effects on a person's focus do you think there are from social media usage?
So we've like talked about a couple of different things but just it doesn't have to be about you
specifically, but from a person's focus. What effects on a person's focus you think they're from
social media use?
Interviewee: I mean I think it's definitely lowered our ability to focus. We constantly want to be
stimulated by some form of technology, and we would rather turn to that for entertainment than
focus on like the tasks at hand are the things that need to be done on a daily basis.
Interviewer: Moving on to talking about push notifications. On average, how often do you find
yourself picking up your phone during a non-related phone activity while such as like studying in
class driving, or watching TV?
Interviewee: A lot. I mean for example, I've been studying for the past 4 hours at the library, and
I've probably picked up 50 times.
Interviewer: What if any increased negative effects are there of push notifications?
Interviewee: I mean they definitely encourage that distraction more if you if you don't have
anything popping up on your phone, it's easy to like focus on what you're doing and avoid the
distraction of like a screen glowing next to you every 5 minuets but when those notifications pop
up, it gives us an easy excuse to go on our phones, check those social media apps, check those
different things and get sucked back into the distraction.
Interviewer: Now moving on to attention span. How would you describe your attention span?
Interviewee: Definitely depends on the activity and my level of enjoyment with it. I'd say on
average maybe like an hour I can be entertained by the same thing and then I just look for
something else to do, or something else to turn my focus to.
Interviewee: When do you find yourself struggling with your attention span? And you kind of
already answered that a little bit.
Interviewee: Yeah, probably most often when I was studying just because the material gets to be
a lot reviewing the same things over and over again, or taking notes for extended period of time
it’s easy to want to turn to something else and pull your focus.
48
Interviewer: Do you think that this behavior is more about unconscious behavior, or is it pretty
conscious of your attention span and like focus?
Interviewee: I mean a little bit of both. it's obviously a choice to go onto our devices and scroll
on social media and stuff but it also with time and extended use of these apps and different things
on our devices, has become kind of unconscious. I mean kind of what we said about push
notifications, you see your phone glow, you just grab it like it's just an instinct. You don't usually
let it sit there, and simmer or just go “oh, I’ll look at it later” like it's instinct to grab that phone
right away and look at it, even if you didn't want to, even if you were focused. It's easy to pull
your distraction from something like that, and it's just become a habit with us to be constantly on
our phones.
Interviewer: Yeah, I agree. Kind of shifting again now, talking about Covid. Were you a college
student during the Covid 19 pandemic?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your ability to focus and perhaps like your attention span?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Versus in person compared to online classes?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: Has that affected now that we're back in person with classes, do you think taking
classes online if any of those habits or anything related to changing focus has affected now in
person classes?
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: How so?
Interviewee: Going online for the pandemic there was a lot less pressure to study as hard for
exams and quizzes. It was easier to distract your focus from class with kind of multitasking,
whether you're listening to a class while you were cooking dinner or watching TV while you
were taking notes or maybe even scrolling on your phone during class, because you weren't
sitting in front of a professor monitoring you, you were able to turn your camera off. You didn't
have to pay attention during those classes, and you didn't have to study as hard and now that
we're back in person getting back into the habit of taking like physical tests and quizzes or sitting
in the classroom having to focus for multiple hours on end. It's definitely become more difficult
with like our lack of focus over those couple of years.
Interviewer: Kind of wrapping up this interview. How do you feel about social media and its
effects on focus and attention span just kind of in general after completing this?
Interviewee: I mean overall it's one of those things where I feel like I know that it has negative
effects on my ability to focus and on my attention span. However, I continue to go to it because it
has become a habit. I don't really always have the strength to prevent or to avoid. It's an easy way
to turn off my brain for a little bit. So it kind of goes back to that you know you shouldn't. but
you can't help it and it's got the negative effects there, but that doesn't necessarily prevent us
from doing it.
49
Interviewer: Do you ever have like a want to change your social media habits or you kind of
just like kind of what you were saying before, like, you know, there's negative effects but that's
just kinda how it is?
Interviewee: Yeah there is a want to change it. I mean I guess I can't say that everyone feels this
way, but I have had moments where I kind of just want to delete it all. I just want to turn it all
off, kind of cold turkey myself from social media. To really just break that habit and live more
like in the moment, instead of online.
Interviewer: Is there anything else you would like to add to this interview? Anything that needs
to be touched on or other comments you'd like to make?
Interviewee: No, I don't think so.
Interviewer: Well thank you so much for participating in this interview. I really appreciate you
taking your time to help us with this research project.
50
Appendix E: Time & Cost Table
Name of Age of Interviewee’s Date of Interview Duration of Costs

Interviewee Interviewee Gender Interview Location Interview
Identification
Student A 22 M 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 23 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
Student B 22 F 10/06/2022 Grand Forks, 28 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
Student C 21 F 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 18 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
Student D 19 F 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 13 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
Student E 23 F 10/07/2022 Grand Forks, 13 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
Student F 21 F 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 16 mins. $0

ND via Zoom
52

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Social Media and its Effects on Focus and Attention Span

COMM 410: Senior Capstone in Communication

Sarah Dignan, Myra Henderson, Hannah Johnson, and Delaney Otto

October 16, 2022

Future (Quantitative) Research

Appendix A: In-Depth Interview Guide

Appendix B: Informed Consent Forms

Appendix C: In-Depth Interview Transcripts

Appendix D: Interview Links

Appendix E: Time & Cost Table

lead us to crafting our future quantitative research.

procrastination, the effects of COVID-19, and the desire to change habits.

willing to change their social media habits.

Qualitative Research & In-Depth Interviews

Before conducting in-depth interviews, we first focused on looking at secondary research

Communication course research project.

themes we have found do not represent the general population.

Social Media as a Social Norm

media apps that you do,” saying:

Social Media as a Way to Fill Time

app do you find yourself distracted by the most and why”:

the most and why”:

media platforms because these periods of time ruin a person’s focus.

or as a form of procrastination, said:

something that was commonly found between the interviewees.

One interviewee, female, was able to describe it, saying:

diminished their tolerance for virtual classes and videos.

Desire to Change Habits

One female interview spoke to her social media habits by saying:

Another female interviewee responded to this by commenting:

This was shown by a female interviewee stating:

willingness to change their habits.

Future (Quantitative) Research

range to have a larger variety of participants.

tests and back up our findings with data.

on attention span. Society for communication research.

on task performance with regard to smartphone overuse using ERP. Hindawi:

Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience, 2016, Article 5718580.

media. First Monday, 21(10). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v21i10.6949

Appendix A: In-Depth Interview Guide

III. Push Notifications

IV. Attention Span

Appendix C: In-Depth Interview Transcripts

Interview Transcript with Student A

Interview Transcript with Student B

Interviewer: On social media, yes.

Interview Transcript with Student C

Interview Transcript with Student D

Interview Transcript with Student E

Interviewer: Do you have the screen time set up on your phone?

Interview Transcript with Student F

Appendix E: Time & Cost Table

Name of Age of Interviewee’s Date of Interview Duration of Costs

Student A 22 M 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 23 mins. $0

Student B 22 F 10/06/2022 Grand Forks, 28 mins. $0

Student C 21 F 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 18 mins. $0

Student D 19 F 10/09/2022 Grand Forks, 13 mins. $0