This verb refers to entertaining, diverting someone's attention and what they are explaining. The origin of the word distraction refers to the Latin “distractio” that refers to the result of distraction, from the Latin “distracén” a word formed by the prefix “dis” that indicates separation, and by “trahere” that refers to the action of dragging.
Distracting is separating or distancing ourselves from the reality or problem we should be focusing on in the present moment, diverting our attention to other more worrying or more pleasant topics. Examples: "While I was in the meeting with my bosses, I distracted myself thinking about my father's illness that made me extremely nervous" or "The teacher explained, and I, distracted, took my thoughts to the preparations for my birthday celebration, which will be next Saturday ”.
Other examples: "Due to a distraction from the defense, the school team lost four to zero and was eliminated", "The doctor is very angry and said not to overlook another distraction from his assistant", "Yesterday I had a distraction at work and I had to put in more hours to complete the project. "
It is important to emphasize that external environmental factors can also contribute to distraction: noises, images, events, etc.: “The street noises distracted me and I could not concentrate on reading”, “The driver was distracted by looking at the lights and almost caused an accident "or" I was absorbed in my thoughts, and suddenly I was distracted because I witnessed an assault ". Some distractions can be fatal, as in the second example.
Distraction can be a completely mechanical phenomenon, and can be caused by an inability to pay attention, a lack of interest in the object of attention, an increased interest or attraction towards something other than the object of attention, or attention disorders. In fact, the indexes most sensitive to the deterioration of executive function are the index of distraction capacity and the process index that identifies working memory and the speed of work in simple tasks. Distractions come, as mentioned above, from external sources, such as those recognized by physical senses and stimuli, or internal sources such as thought, emotion, fantasy, or physical urges.
At present, a problem in the education of children and adolescents is the multiple distraction factors that they have and that divert their attention from studying to those hobbies, such as video games or social networks. The set of hobbies are called distractions.
