To think screens have destroyed attention spans?

[FormerBookWorm]

And I don’t mean children.

I had a lovely afternoon to myself today. Friend had loaned me a book she was raving about. I realised when she gave it to me that I haven’t read a book in years. Any free time I get I sit and scroll. Either on here or on Facebook or Instagram reels. Or I play match 3 type games on my phone. So I thought I’d leave my phone upstairs and sit and read. I couldn’t manage it. I read half the first chapter and found myself groping about for my phone. Remembered it was upstairs and that I was trying not to look at it so I carried on reading. I couldn’t make it past a chapter without my mind drifting. I got up and made tea. Made a bit of bread and jam. Went upstairs to have a “quick look” at my phone but left it there and came back down. Started reading again. Looked about for my phone. Remembered. Carried on reading. Got up for the loo. Wandered into kitchen again. Tried to read. Realised I had no idea what I was reading and was just thinking about other stuff.

Its crazy. I used to read multiple books a month. I loved it! The escapism of a good story! I’d read late into the night as I was so into the story. Now I can’t even tell if something is a good story. I can’t get far enough into it to tell and that makes me really quite sad.

I never usually make any New Year’s resolutions but I actually think I will that I’m going to try and start reading again. Put the fucking phone down and train myself out of this addiction. I’m mid 40s and I hate that I’ve become this. And while I say I’m talking about adults here, it does make me worry for kids as well. As an adult I’m struggling to regulate my usage. No wonder kids can’t and end up very addicted.

So here I am. Posting this thread instead of reading. Yet another phone orientated distraction. 🤪

That is very sad. You should persevere with the reading.

Yep you need to put your phone away more often, limit your social media and games and be strict with yourself about how/when/why. Build in time to read, do other things.
You are addicted and need to wean yourself off of your phone!!!
You can do it x

@FormerBookWorm it's very well documented

I even heard Niall Ferguson the other day talking about one of his books and he made a point of saying "if you no longer have the attention span to read a book, there are videos of what I'm saying". He's saying that to an audience of people who are most likely to read his books!

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

YANBU.

Let's just say I understand.

Audiobooks are your friend.

I hear you.

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!

@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.

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

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. 😕

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 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.

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

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.

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.

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

Yes the last sentence acknowledges this irony.

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.

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.

I do like audio books sometimes. Often when I’m cleaning I’ll listen to one. But it wouldn’t be my preference as I prefer to have the characters sound how I like them not how someone else interprets them. I do find them easier though than reading these days.

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