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If you ask anyone in the Education field who began their career before COVID, they’ll all say the same thing: there is a stark difference between what kids were like before COVID and what they are like now. COVID permanently changed some things in the adult world as well, such as the rise of remote and hybrid work and an increased emphasis on the importance of wellness. However, for many of us, it feels like things mostly returned to normal. The same is not true for children and teens, whose worlds and lives were permanently changed during their formative years. Although there is quite a long list of impacts COVID had on teens, one of the most significant is the decreased ability of teens’ focus after COVID. This blog will explore some of the reasons why COVID changed teen’s ability to focus.
Technology use and focus are incredibly intertwined. The more time teens (and adults) spend on smartphones and the Internet, the worse their ability to focus tends to be. During the pandemic, technology became teens’ only connection to the outside world. Because peers are the most important influence on development during adolescence, the shift to connecting with peers solely through technology had a huge impact on adolescent development. During this formative period, teens learned to connect with their friends solely through games, messaging, and social media. They also learned used games and apps are their primary form of entertainment, rather than in-person activities with friends.
Because they learned these behaviors during such a formative time, unlearning them now that they have the opportunity to explore activities beyond their phones is extremely difficult. For this reason, teens are more dependent on their phones and technology than ever before. Even when sitting in person with a group of friends, they are likely to be independently scrolling through their phones. This increased use of and dependence on technology has led to a decreased ability to focus on longer tasks that require sustained attention.
As mentioned above, many adolescents who came of age during COVID learned all of their norms around socializing with peers through technology. Many teens were out of school for a year or more, interacting with peers only through screens. Those who did go to school had to sit far apart from each other, wearing masks that obstructed facial expressions, with socialization activities such as clubs, sports, and dances all canceled. Because this type of social interaction is crucial in helping teens develop social skills, teens who came of age during COVID faced significant barriers in developing them.
There are a few ways in which these barriers in social skills development impact focus. The first is that because teens prefer to interact with each other through screens, it increases their technology use. The more teens are on screens, the more they struggle with sustained attention. Secondly, it has inhibited teens’ understanding of the importance of active listening. When their friends tell them a long story, they are used to consuming the story while performing other tasks. Many teens missed out on the experience of sitting in a room, only focused on their friend while their friend shares something personal. Without this experience, it is difficult for teens to understand the importance of focusing all of your attention on someone speaking to make them feel heard. This type of focus is a valuable way to practice sustained attention, and many teens today have missed out on it.
Before discussing what school was like during and immediately after the pandemic, it is essential to acknowledge that everyone did their best. COVID was an unprecedented event in our lifetimes and we all tried to adapt and do what was safe and best for everyone. Teachers and educators worked extremely hard to continue to provide a quality education, and parents worked extremely hard to make sure their children were still learning. Despite all of these efforts, schooling during the pandemic was of undeniably worse quality in most circumstances. During this time, it was very difficult to get students to engage virtually. In many cases, there were no consequences for showing up late, attending class from bed with the camera off, and refusing to participate. In many cases, teachers were expected to teach students in their classroom and those at home simultaneously, inevitably leading to very little attention paid to students at home who were unengaged.
For all of these reasons, students during this time had an extremely passive schooling experience. They were often being talked at through a screen, asked to do very little and expected to simply consume content. While teachers worked very hard to create engaging lessons, students were able to get by with minimal engagement. One of the primary ways that children and teens build their ability to sustain attention is through sitting in a classroom, paying attention to a lesson, and engaging in academic activities. In the classroom, they must be active participants and focused on the task at hand. Without this experience, teens missed out on the opportunity to practice maintaining focus. Because the ability to focus is a skill that must be developed through practice, it follows that students who have not practiced this skill struggle to demonstrate it.
In schools, COVID brought about a time of very little consequences for students, because there were little resources to follow through with them. Attendance policies could not be enforced, and consequences for low-quality work, or failure to turn in work, were minimal. Unfortunately, the messaging to students during this time was that their schoolwork doesn’t matter. Although many parents tried to enforce a different mindset at home, it was difficult for students to truly believe that the school subjects they didn’t enjoy were worth the effort when the messaging seemed to indicate the opposite.
As mentioned before, sustained attention comes from building the muscle and practicing focusing on long tasks. To truly develop the skill, one must practice focusing on tasks that one does not enjoy. COVID robbed many students of the natural requirement of completing many tasks of varying levels of involvement, length, and interest, leading them to struggle to develop this skill. While many teens spent long hours on tasks they enjoyed, those who came of age during COVID did not have the same practice focusing on tasks that were outside of their immediate interests.
Increased technology use isn’t the only bad habit that many teens developed during COVID. Unusual sleeping patterns, lack of time outside, and unhealthy eating patterns all emerged during the pandemic. The lack of structure in extended time at home caused many teens to struggle to keep regular bedtimes, eat nutritious meals, and generally remain healthy. Quality sleep, exercise, and nutrition are all essential factors in improving focus. Although these habits can certainly be changed over time, COVID engrained a lot of habits in teens that take a significant amount of effort to undo.
While COVID feels like it was far in the past, for teenagers, there is no going back to “how things were,” because they were so young in the time before COVID. All that today’s young adults have is how things are, and, because of COVID, the way things are involve some challenging habits that inhibit focus. Despite this fact, there are many ways to support teens in building habits now that will help them improve their ability to sustain attention on tasks. This blog post outlines many quick tips that can help you get started. The most important thing to know is that it’s never too late to start working on Executive Functioning Skills like focus, and although COVID was harmful for many children and teens, its impacts do not have to be permanent.
Building one’s ability to focus can be a long, challenging process, particularly for teens who struggle with ADHD. A caring parent can go a long way, but sometimes it’s necessary to call in a professional. YA Success Coach offers personalized support for teenagers in building habits that will improve their lives. Our individualized approach emphasizes getting to know your child, what systems will be supportive for them, and what factors inhibit their success. From there, we work with your child to develop systems that are uniquely supportive to their specific needs and provide them with the individualized support they need to help them stick to these systems. Contact us today to learn more about how success coaching can help your teen.
Having a conversation is the first step to helping your child realize their full potential and set them up for success!