How Distractable Are You?

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With the very unfortunate circumstances involving William Friend and my own personal struggles, I have decided it might be a good idea for me to post a more light topic than I have posted lately. This one is about distractibility. For purposes of discussion in this topic, distractibility shall be defined as internal (thoughts, emotions, and bodily feelings like hunger, thirst, coldness) or external (noises, lights, and other people) events that interrupt a pre-existing action sequence or thought.

For purposes of completeness, you may want to include the different effects of internal and external stimuli in distracting you, whether you can easily return to what you were already doing, and duration of distraction. Also, do you seek distraction or try to avoid distracting environments?

As for myself, I am single minded, quite literally. I tend to concentrate on one thing at a time. For example, today I was trying to put the pin of the charger into my cell phone, and there have been problems with this connection, so I had to try repeatedly to get it charging. My roommate, who doesn't converse much, happened to start a conversation with me at this time about the differences between the inside of his new computer and the inside of his family's five-year-old computer. I could only respond briefly because my focus was on getting the phone to start charging.

I am somewhat easily internally distracted, especially if I am preoccupied with something mundane. My thoughts tend to ruminations about certain unfortunate factors currently at play in my life and do present an obstacle to studying. I might also start thinking about a more pleasant idea, which I might also ruminate about. Often these ruminations aren't about anything of consequence, and sometimes they lead to analysis of the trivialities brought up in a current rumination to create a whole new rumination.

I am not very easily externally distracted, though. In fact, I tend to put myself in environments with a lot of people (e.g., studying in the dorm's lounge); ruminating publicly may appear odd, so it lessens the possibility that I might slip into such obsessive thinking somewhat. Sometimes, I am even open to distraction. That is, I voluntarily choose to cease working on what I was working on for some time to talk to someone or something. This keeps the studying or work from becoming too tedious, and I am usually able to continue right where I left off. When I am highly bored, in fact, studying is a useless labor: I just see the page and comprehend nothing. I need some sort of enjoyment to do work. However, I can avoid being distracted by noises, commotion, and all kinds of stuff; one of my roommates, while everyone else in the lounge was very excited about a baseball playoff game, commented later on how I was able to avoid becoming distracted, thinking it a good quality for studying.

It should also be noted that those who have a high proclivity to becoming distracted and unable to do what they want to do because of that may have symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

I have many in depth thoughts on my distractibility. FIrstly I feel that it is largely related to

OH LOOK, A bird!! !!

...I do hope people'll lay off the ADHD/ADD jokes. It's a real issue for many people, myself...boobs!

I tend to get lost in my thoughts a lot. I am the lord of omnipresent daydreams. If I'm not focused on something, my mind wonders all the way to the moon. I jsut float around my own thought aimlessly. If I'm tired, I'll simply speed through time without thinking at all. My main issue is that, and people talking in the background. I can not focus with a room full of noisy people. In one class, I won't start workinig until the room is quieted down enough. I'm hoping that won't be a problem in college. In comparison to other people, I don't know how bad I am, but I was bad enough as a kid to get an ADHD dx. Suprisingly though, I cna multitask like a madman when in the zone. Call it Hyperfocus if you must, but I can listen to music on a frined's Ipod and sing choir music at the same time. Musical multitasking is something I've recently found I'm good at, yay! My mind can be in a million places at once, but the simplest distraction can send it all crashing down at once. This is why school is not always easy for me. If I'm not distraceted, I can copy upside down answers and hold a conversation at the same time. But the right distraction would completely throw me off.

sounds more like tourettes sarcastic

I have that too!! ! Many of my daydreams are sexual in nature. I also forgot to mention I can't read books well because silence is distracting and I usually need to focus on two things at once. Silence isn't really distracting, it just freaks me out. Libraries are creepy.

I am very easily distracted, I cannot perform a task and talk at the same time.

It depends what I'm doing. Most of the time, I'm extremely easily distracted by outside things (especially noises), which makes it brilliant fun to take tests in rooms with other people tapping their pens...or even writing down answers to the test questions.

Heh, I hope people lay off the ADD/ADHD jokes as well. I get enough of that at school from various people (classmates, people in the halls, even some teachers) to put up with it here.

I become very distracted/aggrivated by any noises or intense lights.

For about 6 months when i was still living with my parents i used to wake up at around 5 or 6 in the evening and go to bed around 10 in the morning. I did this to avoid the noises other people make whan just living their lives. Having a TV, radio, vacum, or someone doing dishes causes something like panic attacks in me. I even quit my job and got another one that was a graveyard shift (1AM-7AM) just to keep this sleeping pattern going. I LOVE silence.

As for lights i always need to have an equal and even lighting balance in the room. I cannot watch a TV or computer screen in the dark for more than 30 minutes or so before my eyes become very strained and tired. I always turn on a bright light in the room or at least illuminate the wall behind the screen/monitor.

before i moved out i used to be SO stressed. Its noce to have a quiet home all the time now so i can live during normal hours. )

Originally I was supposed to do a political science essay untill... yah

*blinks* Sorry, did you say something? Ask me again?

For every action there is an equal and opposite distraction.

- MaJeStic's Law of Physics#42

THE KITTY TALKED!

Gotta go, I think there's something interesting over th

I was literally going to write a considerable bit here, but I literally forgot most of it before I got here. . . . .

whats this post about again? Someone distracted me.

I'm am SO distractable-

Oh look! A cliche!

GA

Yes, I'm fairly distractable. Especially the smaller and less generally noticed the noise, the worse it is. As I've said elsewhere, I can't read anywhere but in my own apartment.

And while listening to other people I get incredibly distracted. This is also complicated because I show some CAPD symptoms, so "auditory" isn't my strong suit.

Last edited by Sophist on 04 Nov 2005, 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.