it's a generational impact of technology/phones/social media, habits being crystalized over years. The phrase I liked was 'your attention is being fracked'. and reading about how you can't really do more than one thing at once you just do multiple things rapidly, which fukks your focus up.
each iteration of social media is faster and faster, so our spans are going that same direction. Read something around 2020 that said like most millennials have at least 2 screens at any given moment. And most Gen Z have as many as 5.
Not having social media, I am a little better. Like I try to focus on one thing at a time. Don't text and walk. Don't text and talk on the phone. Even 50% reducing AirPods when I am walking has helped. instead of walking around on the phone, or listening to Yo Gotti or 1992 Jodeci, I just look at the trees. Listen to the world. It's calming.
For movies and tv, only watch things you really want to watch. A lot of NetFlix and streaming content are "second screen" movies, meaning they full expect people to be on their phones. Watch in theaters helps too.
but yeah around 2019 I noticed it myself, opening one tab, and then another, reading half an article and then another. Getting into an elevator and then pulling out my phone, to what? read for 13 seconds? so I tried to stop all those habits. I notice in my friends and people too, like they can't focus on a single subject for more than about 45 seconds.
