To think screens have destroyed attention spans?

@FormerBookWorm glad you read your book

You know Netflix have said that they are scripting things with reminders of the storyline in them -because apparently people scroll on their phone when they're watching TV

I don't do that. It's because I'm having issues with. But funnily enough, it's fiction that's difficult. I'm alright with non-fiction. And apparently that's quite common. I wonder what that's about.

But I used to love reading fiction. Now MN has replaced fiction. Although of course some of it is fiction 😂

With MN, I'm not sure if it's the same because you are actually chatting to someone - in a manner of speaking. I live alone but I'm still on here far too often.

Incidentally, it's mostly MN I'm addicted to, not Instagram or Facebook, and I don't do X/Twitter at all.

I find this when I watch a new TV series or a film. I do worry it’s phone induced lack of attention span but then I also frequently find myself thinking that film and TV is just recycling the same old thing again and again and again. Nothing is original and most things are done badly with production values far higher than they are worth. It’s just - not quality.

But then it does also happen with books. But I do still get fully into them after 2-3 chapters of being strict with myself.

I also think being busier than ever with kids and work has its effect on attention span. It’s not that the phone causes the low attention span, it’s that the phone provides it when that may be all you can handle.

This is quite interesting. I recently listened to a radio programme about Margaret Drabble. When it finished I remembered that I had a lot of her books on my bookshelf so I took down the one I remembered as a favourite and started to read it. Well I tried to, it was a bit of a problem that it was so old that the glue had perished and so all the pages were falling out as I turned them but it didn't matter in the end because it seemed so slow and self indulgent. When I finally got to the end of the first chapter I gave up and threw it in the bin.

Might be that my tastes have changed but I think it is mostly that it was wordy and slow and I kept thinking just get on with it.

Yes the last sentence acknowledges this irony.

Well, physiologists, child experts and medics feel they can cause problems in children, so I suppose they could in adults. 🤷‍♀️

Yes, this is me but with TV. Apart from a couple of exceptions like Call The Midwife, Eastenders and what ever box set we’re on, I lose interest, can’t concentrate and pick up my phone or ipad and end up on MN.

Totally agree with all you’ve written. It’s the same for me (also mid-40s) and I also worry that if I’m like that (well-educated,
intelligent, in a responsible job), how much worse is it for other adults who maybe aren’t as aware of how damaging it is and for younger generations who have never had the experience of being bored and having space to think that the over-40s have.

Completely get this! I need a strategy to get off my phone so much.

I did the same start of Jan too. I dont miss social media at all. I have now found myself coming onto mumsnet way too often tho. Im not sure how i could get rid of it in the same way though as its a public website.

Just been reading another thread about abandoning books and thinking about it, this was something I never used to do. I would always finish a book, now I frequently abandon books as I realise I've re read the same page twice and still have no idea what happened, my mind just drifts.

Or it could be the quality of books, since moving to a kindle and reading whatever is free on prime, maybe the quality isn't the same

Or I'm loosing braincells as I'm getting older 😂

I absolutely know what you are talking about. I have about 10 books laying around half started. It’s heartbreakingly depressing, I used to love reading,. I’d be up for a support thread as ironically a contradiction in terms of a solution it is. 😕

This is me too - same age. I always had a reputation as a voracious reader from a young age but my attention span is ruined - i can barely read a cook book now - it makes me so sad but I've not yet been able to break the addiction - I'm not even on Facebook or insta, its just mumsnet and random reddit stuff

@FormerBookWorm maybe read "stolen focus" by Johann Hari. Ironically, it might get you back into reading. He talks about interviewing experts and how the brain works and how things get to a state of "flow" in your head... but he's also seen some of them feeling that there is nothing that can be done about this. Unless you really really try.

I'm not sure. I'm absolutely addicted to my phone, but I also read every day and always have done. I could happily concentrate on a book for hours and hours. I say I don't have time to do that, but then I look at the internet/app timer on my screen...

i don't think it's necessarily that we can no longer concentrate, it's that lots of us don't really want to. Scrolling is easy and highly addictive. It gives us a fast dopamine hit which reading a book generally does not. If you were put in a room all day on your own with no phone, I bet you could concentrate just fine on a book!

I hear you.

Audiobooks are your friend.

Let's just say I understand.

YANBU.

Probably not the best idea starting a thread on MN about this bold new plan…