Diya Gupta | Contributing Illustrator

We all know that moment. You’re typing notes in lecture, and your attention starts to slip. Your eyes drift toward the “New Tab” button on your laptop’s browser. Suddenly, you’ve made an online purchase, skimmed Instagram, and caught up on your Canvas announcements — all during the class you are paying hundreds of dollars for daily.

Taking notes on a computer inevitably leads to distraction, no matter your willpower. Since the online platforms on your device are literally created to invade your attention at all times, handwritten notes will train your brain not to fall prey to these algorithms. In other words, you need to eliminate the opportunity for distraction entirely to make the most out of your WashU education. Use your classes this semester — just a few hours each day — as a start. 

In her recent op-ed, Angela Duckworth, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, describes how successful people do not necessarily have more willpower than others in resisting distractions to spend more time on their work. Instead, they limit the opportunity to be distracted. In practice, this involves deleting social media from their phones, buying only healthy foods, or, in an extreme case, moving to a new city. 

It is the job of some of our nation’s most skilled scientists to create online platforms that dominate your brainspace. In a court filing released in November, email communication records from Meta revealed that senior researchers for the company compared “IG” (Instagram) to a “drug” and themselves to “pushers.” Besides pointing to larger problems in Big Tech, this insight shows how, since distractions are so easily accessible, it is not your fault that you can’t pay attention in class.

For students who come of age with the internet at our heels, this means that if we truly want to benefit from our education, we should take steps to eradicate the opportunity for distraction in class. Most of us can’t expect our willpower to come through in those moments in lecture when we feel least engaged.

Before we could glance at our email or browse our favorite online retailer when we felt this gleam of boredom, perhaps we would have thought deeper into the presented material or even sparked creativity by doodling. That feeling of disengagement could have been a moment to sit with one’s own thoughts — an art all but lost in today’s fast-paced world.

Handwritten notes are step one in this pursuit. Class material aside, getting an education is not just about the knowledge or skills you gain but also the habits you create; school teaches us how to get up in the morning even when we don’t want to and how to build connections with our peers. Similarly, your classes this semester can be an opportunity to begin training your brain away from its technology addiction. 

Here, I could cite the numerous studies that show how students perform better when their classes are tech-free, but I hesitate to make this an argument about productivity. The value in keeping your computer closed during class is not just how it will help you earn better grades; it’s whether or not we are okay with becoming “tools of our tools.” 

If you want to beat the algorithm and drive your own life, then I urge you to eliminate the opportunity for distraction from your in-class experiences here at WashU. Try handwritten notes this semester. Use class as your entertainment, for once. If you’re bored, well, maybe that boredom is another kind of opportunity itself.