難関大向け｜英語長文問題129（デジタル）605語＋和訳・解答解説

Digital devices are often blamed for making concentration more difficult. The familiar picture is of a student trying to read while messages, videos, and news alerts repeatedly pull attention toward a screen. From this perspective, the solution seems obvious: remove the device and concentration will return. Yet this explanation may be too simple. A phone can certainly interrupt a task, but the deeper issue is not merely how often technology demands attention. It is also how repeated interaction with digital environments may shape what people come to expect from attention itself.

Many digital activities are organized around rapid shifts. A user reads a short post, checks a message, watches part of a video, and follows a link, often within a few minutes. None of these actions is necessarily harmful. In fact, switching quickly between sources can be useful when the goal is to compare information or respond to changing circumstances. The difficulty arises when habits suited to one kind of task are carried into another. Reading a complex argument, solving an unfamiliar problem, or writing a careful essay requires a willingness to remain with material that may initially seem slow, confusing, or unrewarding.

This distinction matters because concentration is sometimes treated as if it were simply a fixed quantity that devices consume. A more useful view is that attention involves choices about what deserves continued effort. When people become accustomed to environments in which a more stimulating option is always available, moments of difficulty can acquire a new meaning. Confusion, which may once have signaled that a reader should slow down, can instead become a reason to switch tasks. The device does not have to interrupt at that moment. Merely knowing that another source of stimulation is easily available may make persistence less attractive.

However, it would be misleading to conclude that digital technology inevitably weakens the ability to focus. The same device that offers endless distractions can also support sustained work: it can block notifications, provide access to long texts, record notes, or connect a learner with explanations that make difficult material understandable. More importantly, people do not use devices under identical conditions. A student who has a clear purpose, limited interruptions, and established study routines may interact with a screen very differently from someone who begins working without deciding what deserves priority. The effect of technology therefore depends partly on the structure surrounding its use.

This point complicates attempts to solve the problem through strict prohibition alone. Keeping phones outside a classroom or study space may reduce immediate interruptions, and in some situations that is valuable. But if concentration also depends on expectations and habits, removing a device does not automatically teach someone how to stay with a demanding task. Once the restriction disappears, the old pattern may return. Conversely, learning to notice the urge to switch, deciding in advance when to check messages, and creating periods in which one task has priority may help develop forms of self-control that remain useful even when technology is present.

The central question, then, is not whether digital devices are good or bad for concentration. That framing gives too much power to the object itself and too little attention to the practices that develop around it. Digital environments can encourage frequent switching, and designers may deliberately make continued engagement attractive, so individual discipline cannot explain everything. Still, concentration is not simply something technology takes away. It is a capacity shaped by environments, habits, purposes, and repeated choices. Effective responses should therefore do more than separate people from screens; they should also help people build conditions in which sustained attention becomes both possible and worth the effort.

Q1. What view of concentration is presented in the final paragraph?

1. Effective solutions should address both digital environments and users’ attention habits.
2. Technology itself is chiefly responsible for weakening people’s ability to concentrate.
3. Removing screens from daily life is the most reliable long-term solution.
4. Personal discipline matters more than environmental design in protecting sustained attention.

Q2. What does the third paragraph suggest about difficult tasks?

1. Confusion during demanding work usually signals that switching tasks is beneficial.
2. Easy access to stimulation can make difficult tasks seem less worth continuing.
3. Attention declines mainly because devices interrupt users at unpredictable moments.
4. Frequent switching strengthens persistence by making people more responsive to difficulty.

Q3. Which statement is NOT supported by the passage?

1. Temporary device removal may reduce distractions without building lasting self-control.
2. Digital tools can support focused work when their use is well structured.
3. Rapid switching between digital sources consistently damages every kind of task.
4. Some tasks benefit from quick shifts among multiple sources of information.