Who Do You Blame for All of It?

By Anya Saluja

A 9am lecture is where it all starts. Sitting in class super early, almost half asleep, staring at the big screen ahead, but choosing to look at the smaller one in our hands. We see our notifications, keep checking the time and blame our phones for making us check messages from our family and friends, but we are finding reasons not to focus. We choose not to pay attention because it feels more convenient that way. It is easier to look at brain rotted videos than to try and understand what is being said in class.

But why do we do that when we know it’s wrong? Why do we willingly trade it off?

Here is where the blame game comes to play.

It is human nature to blame others for our choices. Maybe we blame the lecturer, for being slow, for not being interactive enough, for not teaching properly. Maybe we blame our friends who are playing games, so when we do it, it feels normal. Maybe we blame our devices. For existing.

A Queens finance student believes it is society’s fault. He says he wasn’t like this before. He used to focus in class. He used to sit through lectures without constantly scrolling through reels. But now he has to as part of the routine.

Then a Law student sees it differently. She says it depends entirely on the class. If the content is interesting, she will focus. If it is not, she won’t. It does not depend on the lecturer, she says, it depends on what we find interesting. In other words, we choose when to pay attention. We choose when it’s convenient for us.

And when we see others doing it, it becomes easier. If the person beside you is scrolling, you would want to do the same. Distraction spreads fast across the room. It becomes less of an individual action and more of a shared experience.

But we can’t really blame society. Or the lecturer. Or our friends. It has been like this for years. We know all these “reasons” already, yet we still repeat the behaviour.

We could say the solution is simple: make lectures more interactive. Cold call students. Keep people on their toes. And yes, interactive lectures do help. But in a lecture hall of over 100 students, lecturers cannot pinpoint every individual to check whether they are paying attention. University works differently. We are adults. We are expected to manage ourselves. There is no teacher walking around telling us to put our phones away. It’s basically every man for themselves.

And they can’t just take the phones away. We have laptops. We have iPads. Social media and games are accessible everywhere. The device itself is not the issue.

At the end of the day, it comes down to choice.

In economics, we call it a trade-off, giving something up in order to gain something else. Usually, trade-offs are rational (more positive). We give up something because what we gain is more helpful. But in a lecture hall, it’s different. We trade two hours of focus for two hours of brainrot. And the most unsettling part is that we are aware of it.

We know what we are giving up.

Attention span during lectures has become something we joke about, exaggerate, blame on everything around us. But perhaps we have adapted to constant stimulation, and sitting still with one idea for two hours is not todays normal.

So who do we blame?

Not the lecturer. Not our friends. Not even our phones.

Because the trade-off is ours.

And we keep making it.