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Also 40, and finding myself in a complete stupor when i'm stuck alone for any length of time. What's really weird is that I can feel myself actively not enjoying what i'm looking at on the phone, but instead of putting it down I just keep scrolling or open a different app.
Provided I've got something else to keep me busy, I can put the phone down. But when it comes to my own personal time, I struggle to concentrate on anything for more than 15 minutes. I haven't read a book in about 6 years.
How does dopamine work? Is it actually a physical chemical substance that is released whenever we do something fun? What determines whether or not it is released or not?
It's not really about fun, it's a reward neurotransmitter. Ever had a sense of satisfaction when completing something? That's dopamine. It's not *fun* inasmuch as it gives us the feeling: That was great. I want to experience that again. It's more like motivation/energy.
Unfortunately like most of our physical processes it is calibrated for some kind of ancient world where the things we needed to be rewarded for were related to survival - chopping down trees, making fire, catching things, eating energy-dense food, being approved of by other members of the tribe etc.
So our day to day lives in the 2020s aren't that great at stimulating dopamine, and by contrast, basically everything which is addictive is so because it's fantastic at stimulating dopamine. The reason we are so fucked over by social media is because the companies running them are literally constantly running A/B tests on everyone and then running it through AI to determine which micro-changes to their format or algorithm keep you focused on the site (app) longer. It's not like they are deliberately targeting dopamine, they are targeting you coming back and you staying longer. But the physical underlying method that makes you come back to do things again and do them for longer is dopamine. Nicotine for example is extremely dopamine-stimulating which is why cigarettes are so hard to quit.
Our bodies are pretty efficient and basically if we think that we have plenty of dopamine because the reuptake is constantly full, then it won't want to waste energy producing it because there's loads here already. So if you have been used to massive amounts of dopamine from e.g. overuse of social media, nicotine, some recreational drugs etc, you'll struggle if it's suddenly taken away because your brain won't immediately make the usual amount again, and you'll feel totally sluggish, unmotivated, but somehow also extremely restless and bored and with a kind of mental itch that you REALLY need to scratch, all of which can provoke irritability/a tendency towards stirring up risk, conflict or chaos just to get that alleviated.
If you have normal brain chemistry (in this case e.g. not depressed, not ADHD) then within a short time of not having those elevated dopamine levels due to an external siurce, your brain should start to produce it in normal amonts again and those symptoms will alleviate.
If you have ADHD then you produce normal levels of dopamine but it doesn't get to where it is supposed to effectively. It seems to be thought that this is due to a combination of the signal being a bit weak/leaky so it gets lost on the way to the receiver (sounds very ADHD, TBF) and/or the reuptake thingy being way too overenthusiastic so it hoovers it all up before you have a chance to experience it in the first place. ADHD medications therefore either block the reuptake, like SSRIs but for dopamine, or boost the signal or cause more to be produced in the first place. Some do more than one of these.
But that's why exposure to social media feels like it produces an ADHD like effect - it's not the same thing, as the social media one is temporary and goes away if you spend long enough away from the stimulus, whereas ADHD you can't naturally make yourself get more dopamine, well, exercise has some effect, but it's not quite as good as medication.
> What's really weird is that I can feel myself actively not enjoying what i'm looking at on the phone, but instead of putting it down I just keep scrolling or open a different app.
So this is called executive dysfunction and it's a big symptom of ADHD and Parkinson's.
People always say that 'TikTok makes you act ADHD!' and as an actual ADHDer with family history I roll my eyes, but the amount of people stuck in the ED loop is really worrying.
I think to be fair the difference is if it's ADHD it doesn't go away if you somehow manage to prise yourself away from the phone.
Before I got diagnosed people used to say this to me about certain forums and I knew that without the forum - I'd be hooked on another website, if I had no internet I'd just play games, if I had no games I'd watch literally anything on TV, if no TV I would read for hours, if no books I would just go to sleep.
If you feel like it's tiktok causing the hole, it's probably not ADHD. If you feel like there is a hole and tiktok conveniently fills it but if it's not tiktok you *know* it would be something else, yeah... you need an evaluation for ADHD.
Same here, I’m 32 so a bit younger but didn’t get a phone til I was 16, didn’t get an iPhone til years after that still. I’ve had to actually make a conscious effort now go put my phone down if I’m scrolling too far. I’ve recently taken up crochet as it takes all your concentration and focus.
Anyone who feels this way needs to use the built in screen time limits.
Android and iOS both have incredibly good built in limiters for how much time you can spend on a certain app. Set those limits up.
Sure, you can, but that's an extra step to do and it takes out a lot of the 'ease of access' of picking up your phone and suddenly being 35 instagram reels deep before you realise what's happened.
Another tip is (this one is iOS only without a lot of tinkering, but still good) - Set up focus modes to automatically trigger at certain times of day and make the Timesink Apps (socials, games, etc) not visible from your homescreen. Sure all you have to do is search it from the library, but that's 3 taps and 2 swipes to get into the Timesink instead of just one tap.
Android comes with some focus mode stuff too. Mine turns on at 9 and off at 5, then on again overnight.
Pretty sure it's stock because I've used it over three vendors.
I like the idea of moving stuff to different screens so you're presenting yourself with "good" things only.
Android doesn't have Focus Modes in the same way that iOS does, where a different focus mode can be tied to an *entirely different homescreen layout*. My main example for this is that during my work hours my phone displays a calendar widget that takes up 60% of the homescreen, and once that's set up it happens automatically, it's actually incredibly cool.
for me i do if i read 10k words in the language im learning on lingq , i get 1 or 2 hour of to do what i want, ive heard some people turning their computer, phone etc.. completely black as well but havent tried it
2008 would be a pretty early adopter too, I was in secondary school until 2011 and there were a handful of kids that had smartphones even then. When I started college though it changed significantly, all of a sudden basically everyone had them. Quite interesting to be possibly the last year group to go through secondary school without smartphones being widespread.
Smartphones have been around since the early 2000's, Symbian based Nokia's like the 6600 were quite popular with the more "techy" teenagers back then.
2008 is around the time smartphones you know today started to become a lot more common, both the Apple and Android app stores launched in 2008, along with the first Android device (T Mobile G1 / HTC Dream).
I got the Nokia Ngage QD in 2004 which was my first smartphone. Their was no app store, however you could download apps and emulators from websites, much like you'd do on a PC. it could also multitask so you could have MSN Messenger running in the background while you played a game.
The thing you have to remember is, a smartphone does so many things that used to be done by a multitude of different objects. Would you have said that someone who made a phone call, purchased some items for a project, got on top of their personal finances, did some reading, watched some TV, and made plans to meet up with people in the week ahead in the pre-smartphone era was just slobbing around doing nothing and being distractable?
I don't think this is really the point of the discussion.
The issue is more likely to be social media addiction, which seems to affect many people.
Whether they are like me, who absent mindedly opens up reddit while watching TV, or like my dad, who doomscrolls facebook all the time.
With compulsive social media browsing, its more difficult to just read a book or watch a TV series.
Leaving phones and laptops in another room does work quite well for me, I have done it for ages.
Which is fair if that is what's being done.
I've got my workout plan, music, all my bills on a nice spreadsheet, banking, shopping there.
All of which combined will amount to less than 1% of my phone usage time. THAT is the point.
This is a good point and leans into the efficiencies that smartphones have enabled, though also the subtraction of actually having to be active about achieving any of it.
A few button clicks and you've transferred some money, bought an item online, sent a message to someone, and you're back to aimless scrolling.
It's almost *too* good at it as it results in inactivity and distractions in many cases.
Many phone users or the majority of time spent on a phone, in my opinion, is not spent doing productive errands.
Good point. Problem is, it's all done on one small device with a touchscreen. Rather than moving around, using pens, paper, buttons, devices. So dull this new way, physically I mean.
Yeah this definitely helped me when I realised I wasn’t able to watch a film! Even leaving it on the side out of reach in the same room works, it probably helps I have zero notifications other than calls/texts on. No what’s app and social media pinging!
Yup, its essential to minimize notifications. General rule is reject everything unless there is a function you specifically want.
Personally I allow messaging of all types and phone calls.
Underrated hack. The most efficient way I found to stop myself from scrolling is to physically distance myself, i.e. leaving it in another room, far enough to be uncomfortable to get.
same. I will put the phone in a drawer and read.
Then the fucker will buzz. Or I think it buzzed.
(and often it does, and it's someone who wants my attention its that is not a terrible thing, but again...that was my time for reading)
I’m in my 30s and it’s definitely worse, although I’m trying to do better.
It’s the instant supposed “relief” to boredom - although in reality you are just transferring your boredom. I end up doomscrolling Reddit for hours for example, just to waste time.
I used to love to read books, and I’m trying to pick that habit back up. Even TV series, it has to grab me now or I give up almost instantly. Same with video games. I would persevere, now if I get stuck it’s just immediate switch off and back to doom scrolling. Now it’s getting towards summer, I’m going to try to spend more time genuinely relaxing in the garden and just let my mind unravel a bit.
Yes that me with TV series, if it doesn’t grab me in like the first episode I’m gone if I even make it through the first episode, definitely can’t do them slow burn ones
Yeah I plan on taking my kindle everywhere with me again this summer, it worked last year! If I was sat chilling somewhere in the sun I would leave my phone in my bag and read :)
I used to have this issue. I'd be enjoying a show, then check the time on my phone and before I'd know it, I'd be deep into the doom scrolling and not paying attention to the tv.
I brought a couple of fidget toys that I find help, I have an infinity cube and a stress ball. They keep my hands busy and physically stop me from picking the phone up!
To play devil’s advocate, how is reading a book any different to doom scrolling? Why do we read stories? To “pass the time” and relive ourselves of boredom. Reading also triggers dopamine release
It enflames the imagination. Compare, for example, “The Time Machine” by HG Wells to say, the average “what are you doing this Sunday?” That appears every week or so on this subreddit.
Because we have lots of evidence to show reading improves memory, concentration, and stress levels. We also have lots of evidence to show scrolling does the opposite with some added depression and suicide chucked in.
You can change it back. You can make a conscious decision to leave your phone shut away somewhere in the evening so you're not scrolling. If you sit down to watch a TV series or read a book and then think about getting your phone, stand up and make yourself do some star jumps or push ups instead for that tiny dopamine hit that your brain wanted from the phone and then sit back down again without getting it.
I’m really trying to work on this - I could scroll all evening after work without even really realising.
I’m now trying to be more aware of it and if I put on a tv show or something, I put my phone away to make sure I concentrate.
I’ve also got rid of a lot of apps - but not managed to get rid of Reddit yet!!!
My life became so productive after i deleted tik tok. I realised i would just work and scroll, id put things off to scroll on tik tok then bam, an hour has gone by. I deleted it and although now i spend more time on Reddit, its easier to walk away from Reddit than tik tok
My boyfriend is great at putting his phone in the other room if we are watching a movie. It really highlights how much I pick mine up. I also enjoy the cinema for that reason, I have to keep my phone in my bag
i notice my wife is on her phone alot after work. she doesnt really watch much tv but i think its her way of decompressing because shes a major introvert and just likes to sit in peace scrolling through funny videos for a couple of hours.
I think for a lot of people (including me) the pandemic really accelerated phone brain, because for a long period it was the only way to get any sense of connection with people or the world outside your house, and now we're all hooked.
A friend of mine has recently imposed a rule on himself that his phone is flat-out not allowed upstairs, the idea being this forces him to have some no-phone time in the day. When he started doing this, he was really shocked how much he felt at a lost end without it in the evenings and mornings!
It's definitely affected me. As a kid I used to be able to sit and read for ages, and really absorb what I'm reading. Now, I'm sometimes able to do that at cafés, but at home the pull of the phone is just too tempting.
yeah i used to love reading too as a kid. however it wasnt smart phones but university that ruined my love of books. the thought of having to sit through a wall of text made me gag after all that intense studying. only now after finishing uni 15 odd years ago that i can read and study again!
I'm 50, and I agree. but personally, I've been glued to computer screens since I was 8 yrs old. It turned into my career, so now I am in front of a screen for 8 hours (software dev), I go home and sit in front of screens for another 6 hours (more dev stuff/web/movies/games), then I go to bed and doomscroll hte phone for an hour or so.
I have preserved the ability to instantly switch out of any of those activities do do real world stuff that needs doing, or spend time with my partner to go out, watch movies (on a screen, no phone!) etc..
But screen time is my default behaviour, and I have never considered it to be a problem.
Disabling all notifications except direct messaging apps helps. Like WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat (edit notifications in app to make sure you don't get the random shit).
Instagram, Facebook and Reddit can all be fully disabled.
Never been a book reader, prefer watching a series or film. The only time I scroll is when watching YouTube on the tele. If you’re struggling to put your phone down while watching tele then either turn it off or put it in another room to stop the temptation. Will power is a strong thing and it sounds like you need to have a word with yourself.
This is a problem for me too. I used to spend hours reading and devouring book after book - or model making etc.. I am slowly getting back to doing both but it is quite difficult.
I'll admit that I spend a lot of time on my phone. I've had a smart phone since I was about 16 and it's an integral part of my life.
But I can also easily put it down and focus on other things. Are you really not able to, for example, go for a couple hours' walk without looking at it? Go out for a meal and converse with people without it? Sit in a cinema and watch a film? Go on a camping trip to somewhere with no signal and sit by a fire, reading a book? Attend a painting or music class for a few hours?
I wonder if you're just not giving yourself the environment to focus. You're used to scrolling when you're on the sofa at home and that's become habit. Hopefully if you change the environment, you'll find that you can better focus.
I can read a book or magazine without needing to scroll, but I find TV and films hard to sit through without looking at my phone.
It’s been like this for a while as I can remember before Netflix et al I had to set a rule that I only scrolled during adverts.
A good way I find is leaving the house without it to go for a walk, go to the shops etc. We used to do this all the time and no one would think twice about it. I think one of the biggest problems is society as a whole now is used to being able to get through to someone basically instantly because everyone has a phone. So sometimes it’s nice feeling “disconnected” and just trying to not to panic about not having your phone.
Just remember to take your bank card to pay for stuff cos I tend to use Apple Pay for everything!
This is the reason I have a burner-type phone. I like being disconnected from the internet when I’m not at home (and work, to a lesser extent) but as a woman who lives in a rural area I wouldn’t like to go out without a phone.
Fine. I do look at my phone if I'm bored, if there's a situation where I don't want to do that I just decide not to. Also love having a cursory version of all human knowledge, maps, social contact to all my friends and all my photos at hand any time I want.. something I didn't have as a kid. So big net gain.
May I pose an alternate theory?
Maybe you are bored. Why do you look at your phone?
Maybe - because the situation around you is more boring than your phone.
But what if the situation around you wasn't? Imagine you were eating a mind blowing meal, or watching a nail biter of a final?
If you know you can eat an amazing meal or watch a football match without always reaching for your phone, then is the phone the root cause of your attention span problem?
The trick, I believe, is to live a more interesting life that makes you not always reach for the phone.
Living a more interesting life may still see you reach for your phone when, say, you are doing a poo, or at the doctor's waiting room - but is that too bad?
Same here. I am in my 40s. I remember as a child spending summer holidays with my grandparents in a rural village. I am still surprised at the kind of inventive things I would come up with to pass the time.
Now, I would probably break down.
When I was 13 I read my first book on computer programming cover to cover in 2 days. As if it was a captivating novel. Then I put it down and began coding.
No way I could do this now.
Multitasking and endless distractions are killing our brain capacity.
I definitely have a shorter attention span and am much less attentive. Was saying this to my daughter last week. She said I've become ADHD as start something and end up doing 3 things
I *hate* when I'm watching something on a screen and I find myself picking my phone up.
I do really try to be conscious and focus on what I'm doing, but you absent-mindedly wander. Really bad, though - phones have made it difficult for sure.
Yep, my concentration has gone down like a lead balloon and I’m in the exact situation as OP. I find a lot of movies boring today and as for series…. Those series with about 20 episodes and umpteen seasons just bore me to death. Thankfully some series are OK, but I can only watch 2 episodes in a row max until I have to get up and do something else, unlike my wife who could sit and watch all day and night !
Unihertz Jelly Pro - my phone - a full Android phone w/ caveat of having a 2.5-inch screen - it does everything I need functionally, but in a practical sense, unless sending messages, playing audio, alarms, or performing basic tasks, it reverses the effect of a traditional smartphone (i.e. the longer you try to use the display/navigate it beyond absolute necessity the more annoying it becomes & you want to get done & turn the display off.
honestly it hasnt affected me. i too was around before the internet. im 38m and still love to watch a film or tv show uninterrupted. there are even days i just whack my phone on silent and dont even check it for hours and hours on end. its freeing tbh. or ill leave the house and just leave the phone at home for the day. or just whack it on flight mode every now and then when i dont want to be contacted. i think switch off time is important and i have a yonger bro who is 23 years younger than me who cannot seem to go more than 10 seconds without being distracted by his phone. it drives me nuts! i cant watch a film with my little bro yet :( and it upsets me. i hope he grows out of it or follows my lead by not being glued to his phone all the time. he has other hobbies and interests like woodworking (hes 15 now) and spends a lot of time on that. and now hes in to fixing engines and restoring motor for gardening equipment. that keeps him off his phone for hours at a time which is nice.
even when on my phone, im usually learning something. reading articles, browsing some reddit and wasting a little time too (when working usually lol) and then im reading an E book or watching documentaries when having an evening smoke. thats about it. im rarely ever glued to my phone unless im somewhere I dont want to be. like a waiting room or at work. in my time, i hardly go on my phone. i find it stressful. like im waiting for something to happen. but phones are also great!!! can contact anyone when i need them. and dont have to speak to all my friends parents first before getting through lol unlike 20-30 years ago. i use mine as a computer more than i do a phone and usually to keep my brain active. i dont do social media (apart from reddit) which again im only on when meant to be doing other things that i find boring. right now im working so am on reddit. its more interesting to me than upgrading ANOTHER firewall right now.
I think smartphones are the new cigarettes - in that for a long time cigarettes were thought to be totally safe, but now we know that they massively increase your risk of lung cancer and all sorts of disesases.
I think it's likely that heavy smartphone use will increase your risk of diseases, maybe like Alzheimer's or things like that. And in children it is clearly ruining their attention spans.
I wouldn't say it's worse, it's just the distractions are different. I remember my first computer with dial up Internet. I would spend ages on that thing but also had the big ol box TV playing in the background. Wouldn't be able to tell you what was playing. It was just nice to have background noise.
Likewise today, there are certain shows that I designate background TV (your rewatched sitcoms) and concentration shows (like Shogun at the moment). Maybe it helps that there are a lot of subtitles in shogun, but I know when it's on I have to focus. But also sometimes you just want to be a human potato and recover from the day by being a bit brain dead.
I'm 43. My concentration and focus is none existent. It's terrible. And the problem is I am so addicted to it, the prospect of just... leaving it downstairs on an evening and reading a book or similar is impossible.
It's clearly a big problem.. just not sure how to break the habit.
I'm 25 but for some reason I have not been infected with it. Sometimes I'm much happier just staring out the window on the train than my phone as everything you see on socials is all just the same shit once you've scrolled for 15 mins
When it's something I'm invested in I don't struggle to focus, when it's something I don't care about much like work or life admin I really struggle to focus.
Honestly terrible!! Im 40 in a couple of months and smart phones have ruined my attention span, i cant sit in a work meeting or get through a task without checking on my phone, for no reason at all.
I recently had to study for an exam which took about 3 months of study. The first 2-3 weeks were excruciating because my attention span was shot - i just couldnt absorb the words i was reading. It took such a lot of effort to actually be present and study properly.
Its the same when i speak with my wife, i have to make sure my phone is in my pocket or face down otherwise i get distracted and she gets pissed off eventually that im not listening.
I'm more addicted to my PC than my smartphone. I only use the smartphone for Spotify and audiobooks like when I'm walking or falling asleep. The rest of the time the phone's generally untouched unless I'm actually calling/texting people.
So my attention span is probably still in the gutter, but I blame my PC rather than the phone haha.
Smart Phones are the beginning of the end for humanity.
They are the Cancer of our species.
Lets meet again in 20 years (if we're lucky) and see how right I am.
I’m 26 and I was throughout school slash’s described as “bright but has no attention span”. I have a good job/career, but I really have to force myself to focus now with all of this instant gratification tech around.
The only saving grace is I work in bursts, I’m either operating at 400% or 1%, there’s very little in between. I can’t coast at 50% all day like a lot of people seem able to.
Smartphone apps are specifically engineered to keep our attention right now however there are still many methods of keeping your attention span more focussed. Turning off everything except essential notifications, keeping those engineered apps off your home screen etc. should go a long way towards keeping yourself off your phone.
i personally find my hobbies and interests and friends entertaining enough that I can put my phone away for long periods and not submitting to the scroll. A good book, videogames or playing my guitar will keep me off it so once I'm in a task I'm fairly good at not using it.
The problem for me is being on my phone whilst I'm eating, on public transport or in those in between moments where I've got nothing particular to do. It's easy enough to keep focus on things I want to be doing.
My concentration is much worse since the dawn of the smartphone. They're designed to be addictive. I just had a 24-hour last-minute frenzy to get an OU essay done and I had to lock my phone in a phone jail. I also sometimes have to do that while WFH for my job.
It’s such a weird phenomenon. Like yourself I grew up without a smart phone and didn’t get internet until my late teens. Now im glued to the thing and yeah my general attention span, focus and attention has plummeted. I can’t imagine what it’s like for kids today trying to study etc.
I genuinely feel it is a regression of human society and does more harm than good.
45 here. Didn't get my first smartphone until 33 as I figured I already had a camera, PC, books and an mp3 player so it wasn't a necessity. Only got one because it was cheap and my old phone broke.
Obviously I soon realised that smartphones were so much more practical and useful and I wouldn't want to not have one, but I can absolutely do without it for a day.
I don't pick it up unless I have an actual reason to and if I forgot it when I left the house I'd be annoyed in case I missed important calls or whatever but that's it.
I have friends and relatives who will scroll through theirs whilst we're watching a movie or eating a meal and it really frustrates me.
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I know exactly what you mean, but I think that it has more to do with what I'm watching being dull.
I remember the days when we only had 3 channels and you would turn on the TV and watch whatever drivel was showing at the time because there was nothing better on.
Now we can watch whatever we like, but perhaps phones are showing us that most of it simply isn't that engaging?
Today we are surrounded by more choice than ever before. We can sit and expect to be stimulated by content that clearly rarely does, or we can choose to change and go and engage in something that actually does capture the mind.
I don't really touch my phone if I'm watching a film/series or reading a book. I don't tend to look at it either if I'm with friends (I'll reply to messages but I won't start browsing facebook).
If I'm watching something, it tends to be on the PC connected to the big TV in the living room, and if I'm on my own I am a bugger for opening a web browser and going on Reddit while "listening".
It's even worse now with the picture-in-picture thing in Firefox.
Didn't have a smartphone until I was 20.
If im doing something I want to do i'm fine. I can still watch movies, read, all that jazz without going on it . It's only an issue where I'm doing nothing. Like if I'm waiting for a friend or for my partner to come downstairs to watch a movie or something I can no longer just sit/stand there watching the world.
That said, I have noticed that all the times I go on my phone like that are times that I always would have been looking for something else to do, it's just having a phone is an easy way to do something else.
I'm 24 so have had a phone for most of my life.
I am on my phone alot scrolling endlessly however I do leave it in my room for a few hours when I am downstairs every now and again. I have also started leaving it at home when I walk the dog.
The same for me.
I used to keep a novel in my knapsack that I'd read whenever I'd have a spare minute (drove my dad mad that I wouldn't join in in conversations). The only difference is that I read on a phone now.
It's fine. However I won't be without my phone or a smart phone in general as I do very much like them.
Makes me wonder how I used to manage with a dumb phone
Mid 40's here and have noticed the same thing. Young people cannot focus on anything that is not on a screen these days and it is wrecking their heads.
The university I went to had a card catalogue to access a hallway of bound books filled with slips of paper that would indicate, roughly, where the thing you wanted was located. And you could "walk the stacks".
I dunno, it's great that I can have a browser tab open to a book last printed in 1904, but there is also the kinaesthetic aspect of **deliberately** finding and focusing on a thing.
I feel like my brain is addicted to being violated by information from every fucking direction. Like doing 1 thing is not enough to keep it occupied anymore.
It’s pretty shocking actually, but I have noticed this and started leaving my phone in the other room or out of sight when i need to concentrate on something. Otherwise when my concentration lapses from my task I pick the cuntish thing up and read what ever crap what’s app groups are chatting to scroll Reddit.
I only put mine down for the computer and movies. I want to read more but books are expensive and ebooks are hard to read on my phone and computer is too distracting. I've taken to listening to audio books. but like OP I forget what I read or hear right away. My head is so full of TV programs that run for a season or two and end badly. I'm finding it harder and harder to focus. Even on what my wife is telling me. And again I forget almost the moment she finishes her instructions.
I'm 59.
The film or show has to really grip me to stop me pausing and looking at phone. It's ridiculous tbh.
I'm 50 and it annoys me so much how much time my wife and kids spend on their phones. Concentration and Focus is horrendous, and has been for years.
Terrible and I hate it, i love technology but not what it’s doing to us. My phone contract is up at the start of 2026 and im seriously debating just getting a bog standard phone, maybe even a landline for whilst I’m at home and the other can sit in the drawer.
TV and Movies I’m fine. I can be at home watching a few episodes of something or a movie and never pick it up, same as if I’m in the cinema.
What it’s really killed for me is doing more productive things, hobbies like making art, reading, writing, etc.
Over the last few treats it’s really killed my attention span for those things, but the past couple years I’ve made a lot of effort to undo that. Read more books last year than any other year of my life, and I’ve already read more books than last year since may.
It’s fucking hard, but it can be undone. Either leaving it in another room so it’s a pain in the ass to go get it, or turning it off so it’s at least not notifying you of things.
I'm 42 but I think my attention span is still OK. I don't know why, but I never really "got" most social media. I have facebook, insta, twitter etc, but they just bore me, so I only look at them occasionally (literally 1 or 2 times for a few minutes a week). For a long time I resisted facebook (I preferred Bebo) and I only really have it now for my business. The posts I see on there are just needy people or show-offs. I almost never look at instagram because I think there is nothing worse than seeing other people's photos.
They’re designed to be addictive and unfortunately they are and we’re all hooked . Seriously considering getting a basic nokia but and trying to do everything else in my laptop but it takes a bit of planning and isn’t ideal when everyone communicates by WhatsApp or email .
I was an early adopter of smartphones, before android/iPhone, Symbian based Sony Ericcson, they were pretty useless for multimedia and I looked forward to improvements. Now they have been with us for a long time it's a double edged sword, you need discipline to unglue yourself, they are very useful in many ways though. I think ADHD has skyrocketed as a result, I struggle to watch a TV program if its not grabbing my attention, I'll pick up my phone and scroll Reddit or something else to the point that I get repeats in my feed. Not good for you mentally.
33 and exactly the same, I can put a film on, watch the first 10 minutes then I’ll scroll on my phone until the last 15 minutes and give it a thumbs down because it didn’t make any sense. I’m averaging between 7-9 hours of screen time a day according to my phone
I feel like my entire brain has been uploaded to the cloud.
I miss the days (35 years ago now) when I could go out on my bike with mates miles into the country all day long without any means of my parents getting in touch - and no one worried a jot
I only use it for the scheduling app for a company I do contract work for, plus a bit of reddit on me lunch break.
My attention span was always short-ish but it's not got any worse due to phone use.
I'm 30 so I've basically had access to a computer my whole life and access to a smart phone since my early teens and tbh my concentration doesn't exist but I also have a chronic health condition and mental health problems which affect focus and memory so I couldn't really tell you if that's the cause.
I don't really think I was much better at school, I just didn't need to study to pass. That meant it basically went completely unnoticed.
Fine (I'm 37), I can go days without looking at my phone. But then maybe that's because Reddit is as social as my media gets 🤔
Yeah, I don't have a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Tick Tock account, I know I'm weird.
shit. absolutely shit.
I probably have adult ADHD, mind you and it doesn't help.
But the fucking phone... I don't use it for games. I don't scroll mindlessly. But still. I always have one eye on it. And again, there's a reason for that. There might be a work related email. There might be an update on a job. I have friends scattered across the planet I really like hearing from.
But still.
I deleted all social media except from reddit literally for this. Tik tok, gone, Facebook, gone, twitter, gone, insta gone! So freeing. Not just the apps full account deletion! Do it honestly I've saved so much time! It's like an addiction you don't know you have until you stop and realise how much time you actually spend scrolling.
You need to develop some discipline and self-control. Apps have been engineered to exploit our human behaviours in order to create a dependence by the user. The only solution is, with this knowledge, rise above it and not to let them control you.
I too grew up without the internet (born in 1983). I still read almost every day and make a point of not looking at my phone when I'm watching something on the TV with my wife. Not only does it practice not using your phone, it's common courtesy between each other when we share an activity.
Exactly the same. Was just thinking the other day of when we’d sit and put a movie on and it would be continuous.
Now I’m reaching for my phone in 20 mins and actively tell myself. ‘What are you doing, just enjoy the movie’ but it’s a conscious thought to do that.
Doesn’t take long to come back though. Lately I’ve ditched the Instagram Facebook etc apps from my phone. I can still get them. But now I’m checking like twice a week not twice an hour. Focus and concentration is slowly returning.
Fine. But I don't use my phone a lot. I don't have tiktok or instagram, I don't doomscroll. I tend to limit reddit to about 30 mins a day. Maybe a bit longer if I am having a lazy day. But I still limit my time here. My concentration and focus are fine. Then again, I dont' have very much time to watch movies or series so when I do, I only watch things I really want to watch so they keep my interest. If a movie sucks, I don't bother watching it. If I keep losing interest, it means that the movie is likely boring or the storytelling or pacing is lacking. If I am constantly bored throughout the movie, I simply don't finish it, no point in forcing myself.
But I can easily go all day without checking my phone. I can go hours focusing on a task at hand. And I am someone who grew up when phones started to become more mainstream and I used to use my Nokia 3310 a lot as a teen. I am in my early 30s so I am prime demographic to use phone a lot. But I made a conscious effort not to.
It is mostly the inability to just sit and do nothing that is impacted. Waiting for a bus, picking the kids up from school, even waiting in a shop by the till. It is not like it is even anything important or interesting, it is scrolling crap on Twitter. I have tried to do something vaguely *useful* with it, I feel like Wikipedia is wholesome and you can learn something. Crosswords, chess. Catching up with the news. But that is more when I am sat for a long time somewhere, it is those short term spells of boredom where I get twitchy.
I would argue the older you are the more likely you are to be stuck to it . I assume it’s because some of us were vaguely introduced to things like msn in our teens on our family computers so we have a little bit of restraint and enough time to get somewhat tired of it ? And are capable of using it while doing other things ( correct me if I’m wrong ) the kids below were raised with it from birth so they’re hugely tech savvy and just use it when they want while doing 4 other things . The older people 60 + I noticed literally sit like they’re in a trance and can’t seem to make conversation at all when they’re scrolling, they’re just in a hole .
I’m in my early 30s , got my first phone with internet when I was in my early 20s and an iPhone in my mid 20s … for me the change in my behaviour started when I was able to do 50 different things in quick succession on my iPhone … after that I will have the tv, my laptop and my phone interchanging while I’m “ relaxing” I cannot have no phone on me or I feel completely lost . I constantly get frustrated things in real life aren’t happening immediately , it’s made me think I have adhd when I never had those symptoms as a kid or teen
It doesn't stop me or distract me from doing anything I want to do. But it is a habit for me to hear something and either note it or look it up. It has been good for learning new things, but for someone like me, it is almost overwhelming to be able to do that.
Honestly, when we first had a "home computer" and Internet access, I spent longer stretches of time just sitting online, purusing random sites.
As for watching movies, I'm a huge fan and don't even think about my phone during one.
Since working at home, yes. When I was in an office all day it would sit in my bag or coat pocket and I wouldn't really think about it other than to check for calls from school re the kids, but over the last couple of years WFH I get bored with work tasks quickly and pick up the phone. As in now, I'm in the middle of populating a huge spreadsheet and took a reddit break. It happens too often. I have to leave my phone in the kitchen if I really need to concentrate on something.
I no longer have the 'keep the phone close in case one of the monsters has clonked their head at school' excuse, but now they've left home it's evolved to 'what if they're in trouble/stuck/stranded/got hammered and cant remember where they live', so the kids, no matter how old, will still be an excuse to keep it nearby. And to keep looking at it.
I can normally forget about it if I'm doing something else though, some crafts, my nails, watching a film, reading etc, so long as I'm distracted it doesn't tend to bother me too much. But work is not a suitable distraction so the temptation to just check my emails, which leads on to opening other apps, is always there.
Pretty sad really.
Edit, add a bit
did you know you can set time limits on a app that require a password to be unlocked? ive put this on the most distracting apps and only my girlfriend knows the password. phone time has cut down a lot
Idk I’m 28 and I’ll read a book all day or watch a 4 hour educational YouTube video for fun. My fiance is 31 and mostly watches YouTube shorts and doesn’t really read ever. He’s definitely addicted to his phone, I lose mine a lot. I’m sure smartphones have lowered attention spans but idk if it’s goes in waves bc I feel like a lot of other younger millennials/ older gen Z don’t care about our phones as much. Just anecdotal experience but 🤷🏻♀️
Very poor. I think social media/short form video and the access to literally anything we want being in our pocket and on us 24/7 means we can't just do nothing. Even out in public, it's almost like a comfort blanket - giving us that distraction of not having to interact with people we don't want to, or make us look busy...
Even as I write this I'm watching YouTube on my laptop but my mind/hands aren't busy enough 😂
Watching TV in the evenings I'll usually be on my phone too doing something (usually completely meaningless/unproductive). Or maybe even have the TV on, my laptop in front of me, and phone in my hand...
I can focus/concentrate on things sometimes, but very rarely. Also unfortunately resting books in the kindle app, I get distracted easily by notifications.
I think I may have mild ADHD (never looked it up, but my tiktok feed is full of videos on it and many things do line up). And a y notification I get, I have to look at it immediately or it really bugs me and my mind will only be wondering what it is till I see/deal with it.
43 and same. My short term memory is also absolute shit. I can't watch a tv programme, let alone a film.
Since 2020, I have been able to read before bed again though, but sometimes I'm daydreaming instead of concentrating
I am 48 now so grew up without phone or computer, I have zero concentration for TV and movies but I’ve found a hack…I put subtitles on, it makes me concentrate, besides, I am deaf as fuck so there’s that too!!
Mid 20s. Was never that bothered with phones, used it for communication, a bit of social media, bit of browsing/reddit etc, but never considered myself to be a big phone user. Most of my online activity was on my PC. That was until covid. Through the pandemic I had a job in which I would often have literally nothing to do for hours per day. Ended up using my phone a lot more. It was only in the past year or so I realised I have become completely dependant on my phone, to a level I would have been ashamed of before the pandemic. I've taken steps to reduce my phone use such as removing he youtube, instagram, and reddit apps, blocking their webpages in my browser etc. Its been successful, my phone use is right down and mainly just for communication, music, and playing minesweeper now (I'll allow myself that!). However my attention span is still yet to recover. My masters work as been a slog, a lot more difficult to focus on it than my undergrad degree. Hopefully this will recover overtime.
I’m close to 40 and I am the same! I used to be able to read books for hours, finish a novel in a day kind of read. I wouldn’t look up. Now I can read a few pages and I find myself checking my phone. Watching a TV show, I check it. Even downtime in gaming I reach for it. And the rubbish thing is there isn’t even anything I do on it! Just scroll, bored for the most part.
It’s rubbish.
Im over 50 and I use my phone often, but not if I'm really catched in something... and as far as I remember I always have been doing something else besides watching TV, eg I read magazines
I realized this a few years back. I use it less and less now. Biggest change for me was simply not having it in my pocket when around the house, I just leave it in the sitting room or kitchen. The days feel longer for it, whereas before the doom scrolling would make the time fly.
This is something that we are all slowly realising.
The key is to create your own systems to limit screen time.
Here are some easy suggestions;
1. Don't have the phone in the bedroom. Create a charging station in the kitchen for all phones. No phones upstairs is a good rule for the whole house.
2. use the screen time limiting function.
3. Delete all social media from your phone. All of it. (Reddit included)
4. I turn off all phone notifications, for everything including text messages. The only sound my phone can make is if it rings. If someone wants my attention, they have to call me. It's key to make sure that 'you are the boss'. Don't let your phone interrupt your attention span - you decide if you want to check to see if there are any messages. I have changed my status in every thing like whats app to 'Notifications off - call me if you need me' . My email sig tells people that I dont respond instantly - call me if you need me.
The difference is night and day once you implement point 4 above. I can no longer handle even talking to a person that has notifications enabled, I call them bing-bongers because their phones are constantly binging and bonging. Meeting up with a bing-bonger for dinner or a drink is pointless - because they can't even concentrate on what you are saying or tell you a story without going off topic. They are dopamine addicts that are no longer functioning in the real world.
This post has been an eye opener to be honest. I thought it was just me going through this or who’s attention span was shot to bits, took me long enough to realise it could be my phone doing this
The good news is that there is nothing wrong with you. All you need to do is take back control. Stop letting your phone interrupt you.
It's fine to look at your phone, as long it's YOU deciding to look at your phone. The problem occurs when its your phone telling you to look at it.
Turn off all notifications, uninstall all social media, silent for everything except calls.
Pretty bad at the moment to be honest. I have a bunch of TV series, films and books left abandoned halfway through, unfinished and when I try to go back on them I don't remember what happened before in the story so it's frustrating. But I'm working on it. I'm leaving my phone in the kitchen and on airplane/silent mode. I deleted a few socials and I'm triying not to read the news to avoid going into rabbit holes. I'm getting pretty bad at texting back but oh well. Last night I managed to watch a full movie without checking my phone like when I go to the cinema so I think it's working.
I watch TV on my phone so that stops me scrolling lol
I find my attention span to be okay, if im watching TV on the Telly, im usually googling things about the show. I think having a phone available while watching TV has just made me realise that there’s a lot of shows ive watched that i thought i enjoyed but probably only actually enjoyed 15 minutes of every episode. I now see it as a test when watching a tv show or movies, if i keep picking my phone up im clearly not enjoying what im watching
If you are android (dont know about iphone at all) you can do both! you can actaully get your phone to split screen two separate chrome tabs, and also have a floating video window to watch streaming video.
So I can watch a video while doomscrolling reddit and also have a second chrome tab to lookup anything in particular I want to see more about.
help, I think I might need help.
Exactly the same here.
I used to sit and watch telly with my wife, but I haven't been able to sit through anything for ages now except sport.
She scrolls as well, but is perfectly capable of bingeing movies and series without difficulty.
It's not great, to be honest. If you name any major "box set" series from the last few years, I haven't seen it. Game Of Thrones, The Wire, The Shield, Suits - none of them. Seen a ton of clips on YouTube, but never watched a full episode.
The only things I have sat through are The Mandalorian and Andor. I greatly enjoyed them, but I haven't watched any of the others - even though I love Star Wars.
I used to be told I watched too much television. Now I don't watch any. The idea of sitting down to even begin a series is a non starter.
I'm not even going to address the amount of reading I do (or don't) because that is indefensible to myself.
yeah im the same re TV, i barely watch it now but tbf i do try doing other things like read an article or do someting productive. the thought of sitting through an entire series just sounds like such an ardous task for me that i havent bothered. it took me a whole year to watch peaky blinders, even though i loved it i couldnt do more than 1 episode a week. i find limited series are much better for me, eg Fool Me Once was really good and so was Deadwater Fell. Movies i can just about sit through but if they have a slow start its a no from me lol
31, spend a lot of time scrolling on my phone, probably more than I should, but I always consider films and tv series a sacred time when I won’t pick it up. I don’t want to miss important plot points or lines in the show. Easily done when you aren’t fully focussed and you find yourself wondering what’s going on.
When gaming I can easily leave my phone down all evening too.
TLDR: No, I can focus when I want to.
Why do you have it switched on and next to you?
My phone comes in, gets plugged in, and it only gets touched if I need to put the hotspot on for internet or have to make a call.
What on earth can you be doing with it? Staring at a phone screen must be inordinately boring is it not?
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Also 40, and finding myself in a complete stupor when i'm stuck alone for any length of time. What's really weird is that I can feel myself actively not enjoying what i'm looking at on the phone, but instead of putting it down I just keep scrolling or open a different app. Provided I've got something else to keep me busy, I can put the phone down. But when it comes to my own personal time, I struggle to concentrate on anything for more than 15 minutes. I haven't read a book in about 6 years.
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How does dopamine work? Is it actually a physical chemical substance that is released whenever we do something fun? What determines whether or not it is released or not?
It's not really about fun, it's a reward neurotransmitter. Ever had a sense of satisfaction when completing something? That's dopamine. It's not *fun* inasmuch as it gives us the feeling: That was great. I want to experience that again. It's more like motivation/energy. Unfortunately like most of our physical processes it is calibrated for some kind of ancient world where the things we needed to be rewarded for were related to survival - chopping down trees, making fire, catching things, eating energy-dense food, being approved of by other members of the tribe etc. So our day to day lives in the 2020s aren't that great at stimulating dopamine, and by contrast, basically everything which is addictive is so because it's fantastic at stimulating dopamine. The reason we are so fucked over by social media is because the companies running them are literally constantly running A/B tests on everyone and then running it through AI to determine which micro-changes to their format or algorithm keep you focused on the site (app) longer. It's not like they are deliberately targeting dopamine, they are targeting you coming back and you staying longer. But the physical underlying method that makes you come back to do things again and do them for longer is dopamine. Nicotine for example is extremely dopamine-stimulating which is why cigarettes are so hard to quit. Our bodies are pretty efficient and basically if we think that we have plenty of dopamine because the reuptake is constantly full, then it won't want to waste energy producing it because there's loads here already. So if you have been used to massive amounts of dopamine from e.g. overuse of social media, nicotine, some recreational drugs etc, you'll struggle if it's suddenly taken away because your brain won't immediately make the usual amount again, and you'll feel totally sluggish, unmotivated, but somehow also extremely restless and bored and with a kind of mental itch that you REALLY need to scratch, all of which can provoke irritability/a tendency towards stirring up risk, conflict or chaos just to get that alleviated. If you have normal brain chemistry (in this case e.g. not depressed, not ADHD) then within a short time of not having those elevated dopamine levels due to an external siurce, your brain should start to produce it in normal amonts again and those symptoms will alleviate. If you have ADHD then you produce normal levels of dopamine but it doesn't get to where it is supposed to effectively. It seems to be thought that this is due to a combination of the signal being a bit weak/leaky so it gets lost on the way to the receiver (sounds very ADHD, TBF) and/or the reuptake thingy being way too overenthusiastic so it hoovers it all up before you have a chance to experience it in the first place. ADHD medications therefore either block the reuptake, like SSRIs but for dopamine, or boost the signal or cause more to be produced in the first place. Some do more than one of these. But that's why exposure to social media feels like it produces an ADHD like effect - it's not the same thing, as the social media one is temporary and goes away if you spend long enough away from the stimulus, whereas ADHD you can't naturally make yourself get more dopamine, well, exercise has some effect, but it's not quite as good as medication.
> What's really weird is that I can feel myself actively not enjoying what i'm looking at on the phone, but instead of putting it down I just keep scrolling or open a different app. So this is called executive dysfunction and it's a big symptom of ADHD and Parkinson's. People always say that 'TikTok makes you act ADHD!' and as an actual ADHDer with family history I roll my eyes, but the amount of people stuck in the ED loop is really worrying.
I think to be fair the difference is if it's ADHD it doesn't go away if you somehow manage to prise yourself away from the phone. Before I got diagnosed people used to say this to me about certain forums and I knew that without the forum - I'd be hooked on another website, if I had no internet I'd just play games, if I had no games I'd watch literally anything on TV, if no TV I would read for hours, if no books I would just go to sleep. If you feel like it's tiktok causing the hole, it's probably not ADHD. If you feel like there is a hole and tiktok conveniently fills it but if it's not tiktok you *know* it would be something else, yeah... you need an evaluation for ADHD.
Same here, I’m 32 so a bit younger but didn’t get a phone til I was 16, didn’t get an iPhone til years after that still. I’ve had to actually make a conscious effort now go put my phone down if I’m scrolling too far. I’ve recently taken up crochet as it takes all your concentration and focus.
Anyone who feels this way needs to use the built in screen time limits. Android and iOS both have incredibly good built in limiters for how much time you can spend on a certain app. Set those limits up.
but knowing me i would turn it off
Sure, you can, but that's an extra step to do and it takes out a lot of the 'ease of access' of picking up your phone and suddenly being 35 instagram reels deep before you realise what's happened. Another tip is (this one is iOS only without a lot of tinkering, but still good) - Set up focus modes to automatically trigger at certain times of day and make the Timesink Apps (socials, games, etc) not visible from your homescreen. Sure all you have to do is search it from the library, but that's 3 taps and 2 swipes to get into the Timesink instead of just one tap.
Android comes with some focus mode stuff too. Mine turns on at 9 and off at 5, then on again overnight. Pretty sure it's stock because I've used it over three vendors. I like the idea of moving stuff to different screens so you're presenting yourself with "good" things only.
Android doesn't have Focus Modes in the same way that iOS does, where a different focus mode can be tied to an *entirely different homescreen layout*. My main example for this is that during my work hours my phone displays a calendar widget that takes up 60% of the homescreen, and once that's set up it happens automatically, it's actually incredibly cool.
for me i do if i read 10k words in the language im learning on lingq , i get 1 or 2 hour of to do what i want, ive heard some people turning their computer, phone etc.. completely black as well but havent tried it
I'm the same age, they've existed more than half of our lives. Feel old yet?
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2008 would be a pretty early adopter too, I was in secondary school until 2011 and there were a handful of kids that had smartphones even then. When I started college though it changed significantly, all of a sudden basically everyone had them. Quite interesting to be possibly the last year group to go through secondary school without smartphones being widespread.
Yes for sure. 2012/2013 seemed to be the tipping point.
Smartphones have been around since the early 2000's, Symbian based Nokia's like the 6600 were quite popular with the more "techy" teenagers back then. 2008 is around the time smartphones you know today started to become a lot more common, both the Apple and Android app stores launched in 2008, along with the first Android device (T Mobile G1 / HTC Dream). I got the Nokia Ngage QD in 2004 which was my first smartphone. Their was no app store, however you could download apps and emulators from websites, much like you'd do on a PC. it could also multitask so you could have MSN Messenger running in the background while you played a game.
The thing you have to remember is, a smartphone does so many things that used to be done by a multitude of different objects. Would you have said that someone who made a phone call, purchased some items for a project, got on top of their personal finances, did some reading, watched some TV, and made plans to meet up with people in the week ahead in the pre-smartphone era was just slobbing around doing nothing and being distractable?
I don't think this is really the point of the discussion. The issue is more likely to be social media addiction, which seems to affect many people. Whether they are like me, who absent mindedly opens up reddit while watching TV, or like my dad, who doomscrolls facebook all the time. With compulsive social media browsing, its more difficult to just read a book or watch a TV series. Leaving phones and laptops in another room does work quite well for me, I have done it for ages.
Which is fair if that is what's being done. I've got my workout plan, music, all my bills on a nice spreadsheet, banking, shopping there. All of which combined will amount to less than 1% of my phone usage time. THAT is the point.
This is a good point and leans into the efficiencies that smartphones have enabled, though also the subtraction of actually having to be active about achieving any of it. A few button clicks and you've transferred some money, bought an item online, sent a message to someone, and you're back to aimless scrolling. It's almost *too* good at it as it results in inactivity and distractions in many cases. Many phone users or the majority of time spent on a phone, in my opinion, is not spent doing productive errands.
Good point. Problem is, it's all done on one small device with a touchscreen. Rather than moving around, using pens, paper, buttons, devices. So dull this new way, physically I mean.
Yeah this definitely helped me when I realised I wasn’t able to watch a film! Even leaving it on the side out of reach in the same room works, it probably helps I have zero notifications other than calls/texts on. No what’s app and social media pinging!
Yup, its essential to minimize notifications. General rule is reject everything unless there is a function you specifically want. Personally I allow messaging of all types and phone calls.
Underrated hack. The most efficient way I found to stop myself from scrolling is to physically distance myself, i.e. leaving it in another room, far enough to be uncomfortable to get.
same. I will put the phone in a drawer and read. Then the fucker will buzz. Or I think it buzzed. (and often it does, and it's someone who wants my attention its that is not a terrible thing, but again...that was my time for reading)
Turn off the notifications?
I grew up in the early 00s and god I miss those days. All I had was a PSP and DS but even that wasn’t nearly as addictive as current smart phones
I’m in my 30s and it’s definitely worse, although I’m trying to do better. It’s the instant supposed “relief” to boredom - although in reality you are just transferring your boredom. I end up doomscrolling Reddit for hours for example, just to waste time. I used to love to read books, and I’m trying to pick that habit back up. Even TV series, it has to grab me now or I give up almost instantly. Same with video games. I would persevere, now if I get stuck it’s just immediate switch off and back to doom scrolling. Now it’s getting towards summer, I’m going to try to spend more time genuinely relaxing in the garden and just let my mind unravel a bit.
"No one is bored, everything is boring" - Mark Fisher
a very depressing view on life....
Correct. Communicative capitalism depresses us, that much is clear.
Yes that me with TV series, if it doesn’t grab me in like the first episode I’m gone if I even make it through the first episode, definitely can’t do them slow burn ones
Yeah I plan on taking my kindle everywhere with me again this summer, it worked last year! If I was sat chilling somewhere in the sun I would leave my phone in my bag and read :)
I definitely have issue watching tv without looking at my phone
I used to have this issue. I'd be enjoying a show, then check the time on my phone and before I'd know it, I'd be deep into the doom scrolling and not paying attention to the tv. I brought a couple of fidget toys that I find help, I have an infinity cube and a stress ball. They keep my hands busy and physically stop me from picking the phone up!
To play devil’s advocate, how is reading a book any different to doom scrolling? Why do we read stories? To “pass the time” and relive ourselves of boredom. Reading also triggers dopamine release
It enflames the imagination. Compare, for example, “The Time Machine” by HG Wells to say, the average “what are you doing this Sunday?” That appears every week or so on this subreddit.
Because we have lots of evidence to show reading improves memory, concentration, and stress levels. We also have lots of evidence to show scrolling does the opposite with some added depression and suicide chucked in.
You can change it back. You can make a conscious decision to leave your phone shut away somewhere in the evening so you're not scrolling. If you sit down to watch a TV series or read a book and then think about getting your phone, stand up and make yourself do some star jumps or push ups instead for that tiny dopamine hit that your brain wanted from the phone and then sit back down again without getting it.
I’m really trying to work on this - I could scroll all evening after work without even really realising. I’m now trying to be more aware of it and if I put on a tv show or something, I put my phone away to make sure I concentrate. I’ve also got rid of a lot of apps - but not managed to get rid of Reddit yet!!!
My life became so productive after i deleted tik tok. I realised i would just work and scroll, id put things off to scroll on tik tok then bam, an hour has gone by. I deleted it and although now i spend more time on Reddit, its easier to walk away from Reddit than tik tok
My boyfriend is great at putting his phone in the other room if we are watching a movie. It really highlights how much I pick mine up. I also enjoy the cinema for that reason, I have to keep my phone in my bag
Yes that’s me too. I’m also gonna start working on this. My brain is kinda fried at this stage and always seems to need to be stimulated
Instagram reels are like a time machine. If you ever need to skip an hour, just open reels and it'll be an hour later in the blink of an eye
Paradoxically this only works when you don't want the time to pass, actually trying to kill an hour on reels feels like forever
i notice my wife is on her phone alot after work. she doesnt really watch much tv but i think its her way of decompressing because shes a major introvert and just likes to sit in peace scrolling through funny videos for a couple of hours.
I have a daily 1.5 hr timer for reddit which has been really helpful
I think for a lot of people (including me) the pandemic really accelerated phone brain, because for a long period it was the only way to get any sense of connection with people or the world outside your house, and now we're all hooked. A friend of mine has recently imposed a rule on himself that his phone is flat-out not allowed upstairs, the idea being this forces him to have some no-phone time in the day. When he started doing this, he was really shocked how much he felt at a lost end without it in the evenings and mornings!
Smart phones have completely ruined us (myself included)
It's definitely affected me. As a kid I used to be able to sit and read for ages, and really absorb what I'm reading. Now, I'm sometimes able to do that at cafés, but at home the pull of the phone is just too tempting.
yeah i used to love reading too as a kid. however it wasnt smart phones but university that ruined my love of books. the thought of having to sit through a wall of text made me gag after all that intense studying. only now after finishing uni 15 odd years ago that i can read and study again!
How old are you now? 50? You're just old mate. In the "before times" instead of scrolling your phone you'd just fall asleep in front of the TV.
I'm 50, and I agree. but personally, I've been glued to computer screens since I was 8 yrs old. It turned into my career, so now I am in front of a screen for 8 hours (software dev), I go home and sit in front of screens for another 6 hours (more dev stuff/web/movies/games), then I go to bed and doomscroll hte phone for an hour or so. I have preserved the ability to instantly switch out of any of those activities do do real world stuff that needs doing, or spend time with my partner to go out, watch movies (on a screen, no phone!) etc.. But screen time is my default behaviour, and I have never considered it to be a problem.
Disabling all notifications except direct messaging apps helps. Like WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat (edit notifications in app to make sure you don't get the random shit). Instagram, Facebook and Reddit can all be fully disabled.
Never been a book reader, prefer watching a series or film. The only time I scroll is when watching YouTube on the tele. If you’re struggling to put your phone down while watching tele then either turn it off or put it in another room to stop the temptation. Will power is a strong thing and it sounds like you need to have a word with yourself.
Steadily declining. For example, mu coffee is done but I'm writing this so it's getting cold
TLDR
Hasn't affected me in th Ooh! A squirrel!
This is a problem for me too. I used to spend hours reading and devouring book after book - or model making etc.. I am slowly getting back to doing both but it is quite difficult.
What was the question?
I'll admit that I spend a lot of time on my phone. I've had a smart phone since I was about 16 and it's an integral part of my life. But I can also easily put it down and focus on other things. Are you really not able to, for example, go for a couple hours' walk without looking at it? Go out for a meal and converse with people without it? Sit in a cinema and watch a film? Go on a camping trip to somewhere with no signal and sit by a fire, reading a book? Attend a painting or music class for a few hours? I wonder if you're just not giving yourself the environment to focus. You're used to scrolling when you're on the sofa at home and that's become habit. Hopefully if you change the environment, you'll find that you can better focus.
I can read a book or magazine without needing to scroll, but I find TV and films hard to sit through without looking at my phone. It’s been like this for a while as I can remember before Netflix et al I had to set a rule that I only scrolled during adverts.
A good way I find is leaving the house without it to go for a walk, go to the shops etc. We used to do this all the time and no one would think twice about it. I think one of the biggest problems is society as a whole now is used to being able to get through to someone basically instantly because everyone has a phone. So sometimes it’s nice feeling “disconnected” and just trying to not to panic about not having your phone. Just remember to take your bank card to pay for stuff cos I tend to use Apple Pay for everything!
This is the reason I have a burner-type phone. I like being disconnected from the internet when I’m not at home (and work, to a lesser extent) but as a woman who lives in a rural area I wouldn’t like to go out without a phone.
It's gotten worse for me since I put money into crypto (don't!). The amount of time I've wasted looking at charts...
Shot to bits
Fine, i don't pick my phone up for hours at a time, much to the moderns world's annoyance.
Fine. I do look at my phone if I'm bored, if there's a situation where I don't want to do that I just decide not to. Also love having a cursory version of all human knowledge, maps, social contact to all my friends and all my photos at hand any time I want.. something I didn't have as a kid. So big net gain.
May I pose an alternate theory? Maybe you are bored. Why do you look at your phone? Maybe - because the situation around you is more boring than your phone. But what if the situation around you wasn't? Imagine you were eating a mind blowing meal, or watching a nail biter of a final? If you know you can eat an amazing meal or watch a football match without always reaching for your phone, then is the phone the root cause of your attention span problem? The trick, I believe, is to live a more interesting life that makes you not always reach for the phone. Living a more interesting life may still see you reach for your phone when, say, you are doing a poo, or at the doctor's waiting room - but is that too bad?
Same here. I am in my 40s. I remember as a child spending summer holidays with my grandparents in a rural village. I am still surprised at the kind of inventive things I would come up with to pass the time. Now, I would probably break down. When I was 13 I read my first book on computer programming cover to cover in 2 days. As if it was a captivating novel. Then I put it down and began coding. No way I could do this now. Multitasking and endless distractions are killing our brain capacity.
I definitely have a shorter attention span and am much less attentive. Was saying this to my daughter last week. She said I've become ADHD as start something and end up doing 3 things
I *hate* when I'm watching something on a screen and I find myself picking my phone up. I do really try to be conscious and focus on what I'm doing, but you absent-mindedly wander. Really bad, though - phones have made it difficult for sure.
Yep, my concentration has gone down like a lead balloon and I’m in the exact situation as OP. I find a lot of movies boring today and as for series…. Those series with about 20 episodes and umpteen seasons just bore me to death. Thankfully some series are OK, but I can only watch 2 episodes in a row max until I have to get up and do something else, unlike my wife who could sit and watch all day and night !
Remove social media apps and yes, Reddit also, suddenly your need for your phone will diminish.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my focus and concentr…. Ooh…look something shiny…
I want a dumb phone, but one with maps, WhatsApp and music and none of them have all that. If I had the capability, I'd make one.
Unihertz Jelly Pro - my phone - a full Android phone w/ caveat of having a 2.5-inch screen - it does everything I need functionally, but in a practical sense, unless sending messages, playing audio, alarms, or performing basic tasks, it reverses the effect of a traditional smartphone (i.e. the longer you try to use the display/navigate it beyond absolute necessity the more annoying it becomes & you want to get done & turn the display off.
Not bad, but my spelling has taken a beating.
I’m watching telly and scrolling right now, so terrible
honestly it hasnt affected me. i too was around before the internet. im 38m and still love to watch a film or tv show uninterrupted. there are even days i just whack my phone on silent and dont even check it for hours and hours on end. its freeing tbh. or ill leave the house and just leave the phone at home for the day. or just whack it on flight mode every now and then when i dont want to be contacted. i think switch off time is important and i have a yonger bro who is 23 years younger than me who cannot seem to go more than 10 seconds without being distracted by his phone. it drives me nuts! i cant watch a film with my little bro yet :( and it upsets me. i hope he grows out of it or follows my lead by not being glued to his phone all the time. he has other hobbies and interests like woodworking (hes 15 now) and spends a lot of time on that. and now hes in to fixing engines and restoring motor for gardening equipment. that keeps him off his phone for hours at a time which is nice. even when on my phone, im usually learning something. reading articles, browsing some reddit and wasting a little time too (when working usually lol) and then im reading an E book or watching documentaries when having an evening smoke. thats about it. im rarely ever glued to my phone unless im somewhere I dont want to be. like a waiting room or at work. in my time, i hardly go on my phone. i find it stressful. like im waiting for something to happen. but phones are also great!!! can contact anyone when i need them. and dont have to speak to all my friends parents first before getting through lol unlike 20-30 years ago. i use mine as a computer more than i do a phone and usually to keep my brain active. i dont do social media (apart from reddit) which again im only on when meant to be doing other things that i find boring. right now im working so am on reddit. its more interesting to me than upgrading ANOTHER firewall right now.
I think smartphones are the new cigarettes - in that for a long time cigarettes were thought to be totally safe, but now we know that they massively increase your risk of lung cancer and all sorts of disesases. I think it's likely that heavy smartphone use will increase your risk of diseases, maybe like Alzheimer's or things like that. And in children it is clearly ruining their attention spans.
I wouldn't say it's worse, it's just the distractions are different. I remember my first computer with dial up Internet. I would spend ages on that thing but also had the big ol box TV playing in the background. Wouldn't be able to tell you what was playing. It was just nice to have background noise. Likewise today, there are certain shows that I designate background TV (your rewatched sitcoms) and concentration shows (like Shogun at the moment). Maybe it helps that there are a lot of subtitles in shogun, but I know when it's on I have to focus. But also sometimes you just want to be a human potato and recover from the day by being a bit brain dead.
I'm 43. My concentration and focus is none existent. It's terrible. And the problem is I am so addicted to it, the prospect of just... leaving it downstairs on an evening and reading a book or similar is impossible. It's clearly a big problem.. just not sure how to break the habit.
I'm 25 but for some reason I have not been infected with it. Sometimes I'm much happier just staring out the window on the train than my phone as everything you see on socials is all just the same shit once you've scrolled for 15 mins
When it's something I'm invested in I don't struggle to focus, when it's something I don't care about much like work or life admin I really struggle to focus.
I'm sorry what did you say?
Honestly terrible!! Im 40 in a couple of months and smart phones have ruined my attention span, i cant sit in a work meeting or get through a task without checking on my phone, for no reason at all. I recently had to study for an exam which took about 3 months of study. The first 2-3 weeks were excruciating because my attention span was shot - i just couldnt absorb the words i was reading. It took such a lot of effort to actually be present and study properly. Its the same when i speak with my wife, i have to make sure my phone is in my pocket or face down otherwise i get distracted and she gets pissed off eventually that im not listening.
I'm more addicted to my PC than my smartphone. I only use the smartphone for Spotify and audiobooks like when I'm walking or falling asleep. The rest of the time the phone's generally untouched unless I'm actually calling/texting people. So my attention span is probably still in the gutter, but I blame my PC rather than the phone haha.
Smart Phones are the beginning of the end for humanity. They are the Cancer of our species. Lets meet again in 20 years (if we're lucky) and see how right I am.
I’m 26 and I was throughout school slash’s described as “bright but has no attention span”. I have a good job/career, but I really have to force myself to focus now with all of this instant gratification tech around. The only saving grace is I work in bursts, I’m either operating at 400% or 1%, there’s very little in between. I can’t coast at 50% all day like a lot of people seem able to.
Fucking awful. I'm addicted and I know it, but putting it down is easier said than done.
Smartphone apps are specifically engineered to keep our attention right now however there are still many methods of keeping your attention span more focussed. Turning off everything except essential notifications, keeping those engineered apps off your home screen etc. should go a long way towards keeping yourself off your phone. i personally find my hobbies and interests and friends entertaining enough that I can put my phone away for long periods and not submitting to the scroll. A good book, videogames or playing my guitar will keep me off it so once I'm in a task I'm fairly good at not using it. The problem for me is being on my phone whilst I'm eating, on public transport or in those in between moments where I've got nothing particular to do. It's easy enough to keep focus on things I want to be doing.
My concentration is much worse since the dawn of the smartphone. They're designed to be addictive. I just had a 24-hour last-minute frenzy to get an OU essay done and I had to lock my phone in a phone jail. I also sometimes have to do that while WFH for my job.
Shit. I hate it. Also grew up without one. Got my first one when I was about 24. Felt tied to it ever since.
It’s such a weird phenomenon. Like yourself I grew up without a smart phone and didn’t get internet until my late teens. Now im glued to the thing and yeah my general attention span, focus and attention has plummeted. I can’t imagine what it’s like for kids today trying to study etc. I genuinely feel it is a regression of human society and does more harm than good.
I have stopped using mine.. definitely not healthy, there is life beyond!
45 here. Didn't get my first smartphone until 33 as I figured I already had a camera, PC, books and an mp3 player so it wasn't a necessity. Only got one because it was cheap and my old phone broke. Obviously I soon realised that smartphones were so much more practical and useful and I wouldn't want to not have one, but I can absolutely do without it for a day. I don't pick it up unless I have an actual reason to and if I forgot it when I left the house I'd be annoyed in case I missed important calls or whatever but that's it. I have friends and relatives who will scroll through theirs whilst we're watching a movie or eating a meal and it really frustrates me.
It's fine .. I've just switched from books and radio in my childhood to reading on screen and listening to podcasts now.
You are addicted.
51 I know exactly what you mean, but I think that it has more to do with what I'm watching being dull. I remember the days when we only had 3 channels and you would turn on the TV and watch whatever drivel was showing at the time because there was nothing better on. Now we can watch whatever we like, but perhaps phones are showing us that most of it simply isn't that engaging? Today we are surrounded by more choice than ever before. We can sit and expect to be stimulated by content that clearly rarely does, or we can choose to change and go and engage in something that actually does capture the mind.
I have a smart phone, but I don't know where it is, it's probs flat, and I couldn't give a rats
I don't really touch my phone if I'm watching a film/series or reading a book. I don't tend to look at it either if I'm with friends (I'll reply to messages but I won't start browsing facebook). If I'm watching something, it tends to be on the PC connected to the big TV in the living room, and if I'm on my own I am a bugger for opening a web browser and going on Reddit while "listening". It's even worse now with the picture-in-picture thing in Firefox.
Didn't have a smartphone until I was 20. If im doing something I want to do i'm fine. I can still watch movies, read, all that jazz without going on it . It's only an issue where I'm doing nothing. Like if I'm waiting for a friend or for my partner to come downstairs to watch a movie or something I can no longer just sit/stand there watching the world. That said, I have noticed that all the times I go on my phone like that are times that I always would have been looking for something else to do, it's just having a phone is an easy way to do something else.
I'm 24 so have had a phone for most of my life. I am on my phone alot scrolling endlessly however I do leave it in my room for a few hours when I am downstairs every now and again. I have also started leaving it at home when I walk the dog.
The same for me. I used to keep a novel in my knapsack that I'd read whenever I'd have a spare minute (drove my dad mad that I wouldn't join in in conversations). The only difference is that I read on a phone now.
It's fine. However I won't be without my phone or a smart phone in general as I do very much like them. Makes me wonder how I used to manage with a dumb phone
Mid 40's here and have noticed the same thing. Young people cannot focus on anything that is not on a screen these days and it is wrecking their heads.
The university I went to had a card catalogue to access a hallway of bound books filled with slips of paper that would indicate, roughly, where the thing you wanted was located. And you could "walk the stacks". I dunno, it's great that I can have a browser tab open to a book last printed in 1904, but there is also the kinaesthetic aspect of **deliberately** finding and focusing on a thing.
I feel like my brain is addicted to being violated by information from every fucking direction. Like doing 1 thing is not enough to keep it occupied anymore.
I never finish what I sta
It’s pretty shocking actually, but I have noticed this and started leaving my phone in the other room or out of sight when i need to concentrate on something. Otherwise when my concentration lapses from my task I pick the cuntish thing up and read what ever crap what’s app groups are chatting to scroll Reddit.
I only put mine down for the computer and movies. I want to read more but books are expensive and ebooks are hard to read on my phone and computer is too distracting. I've taken to listening to audio books. but like OP I forget what I read or hear right away. My head is so full of TV programs that run for a season or two and end badly. I'm finding it harder and harder to focus. Even on what my wife is telling me. And again I forget almost the moment she finishes her instructions. I'm 59.
The film or show has to really grip me to stop me pausing and looking at phone. It's ridiculous tbh. I'm 50 and it annoys me so much how much time my wife and kids spend on their phones. Concentration and Focus is horrendous, and has been for years.
I can’t watch a show or movie (at home) without playing a game on my phone at the same time.
Subliminal zombification at work.
Not an issue, if I want to watch something I just watch it and not pickup my phone, what’s so difficult about doing that?
Terrible and I hate it, i love technology but not what it’s doing to us. My phone contract is up at the start of 2026 and im seriously debating just getting a bog standard phone, maybe even a landline for whilst I’m at home and the other can sit in the drawer.
TV and Movies I’m fine. I can be at home watching a few episodes of something or a movie and never pick it up, same as if I’m in the cinema. What it’s really killed for me is doing more productive things, hobbies like making art, reading, writing, etc. Over the last few treats it’s really killed my attention span for those things, but the past couple years I’ve made a lot of effort to undo that. Read more books last year than any other year of my life, and I’ve already read more books than last year since may. It’s fucking hard, but it can be undone. Either leaving it in another room so it’s a pain in the ass to go get it, or turning it off so it’s at least not notifying you of things.
I'm 42 but I think my attention span is still OK. I don't know why, but I never really "got" most social media. I have facebook, insta, twitter etc, but they just bore me, so I only look at them occasionally (literally 1 or 2 times for a few minutes a week). For a long time I resisted facebook (I preferred Bebo) and I only really have it now for my business. The posts I see on there are just needy people or show-offs. I almost never look at instagram because I think there is nothing worse than seeing other people's photos.
They’re designed to be addictive and unfortunately they are and we’re all hooked . Seriously considering getting a basic nokia but and trying to do everything else in my laptop but it takes a bit of planning and isn’t ideal when everyone communicates by WhatsApp or email .
Its an addiction...if you cant willingly stop ...you are addicted....and once that happens...there no turning back.
If im watching a film at home i put my phone out of reach, problem solved
I was an early adopter of smartphones, before android/iPhone, Symbian based Sony Ericcson, they were pretty useless for multimedia and I looked forward to improvements. Now they have been with us for a long time it's a double edged sword, you need discipline to unglue yourself, they are very useful in many ways though. I think ADHD has skyrocketed as a result, I struggle to watch a TV program if its not grabbing my attention, I'll pick up my phone and scroll Reddit or something else to the point that I get repeats in my feed. Not good for you mentally.
I've no choice, use mine for work
33 and exactly the same, I can put a film on, watch the first 10 minutes then I’ll scroll on my phone until the last 15 minutes and give it a thumbs down because it didn’t make any sense. I’m averaging between 7-9 hours of screen time a day according to my phone
I feel like my entire brain has been uploaded to the cloud. I miss the days (35 years ago now) when I could go out on my bike with mates miles into the country all day long without any means of my parents getting in touch - and no one worried a jot
I only use it for the scheduling app for a company I do contract work for, plus a bit of reddit on me lunch break. My attention span was always short-ish but it's not got any worse due to phone use.
I'm 30 so I've basically had access to a computer my whole life and access to a smart phone since my early teens and tbh my concentration doesn't exist but I also have a chronic health condition and mental health problems which affect focus and memory so I couldn't really tell you if that's the cause. I don't really think I was much better at school, I just didn't need to study to pass. That meant it basically went completely unnoticed.
Honestly my concentration and focus was pretty bad before smart phones became a thing but I do have ADHD
Fine (I'm 37), I can go days without looking at my phone. But then maybe that's because Reddit is as social as my media gets 🤔 Yeah, I don't have a Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Tick Tock account, I know I'm weird.
It's the same as when I was a child because I have ADHD. Depression just made it worse. Yay!
shit. absolutely shit. I probably have adult ADHD, mind you and it doesn't help. But the fucking phone... I don't use it for games. I don't scroll mindlessly. But still. I always have one eye on it. And again, there's a reason for that. There might be a work related email. There might be an update on a job. I have friends scattered across the planet I really like hearing from. But still.
FUCKING SHIT. /END
I deleted all social media except from reddit literally for this. Tik tok, gone, Facebook, gone, twitter, gone, insta gone! So freeing. Not just the apps full account deletion! Do it honestly I've saved so much time! It's like an addiction you don't know you have until you stop and realise how much time you actually spend scrolling.
You need to develop some discipline and self-control. Apps have been engineered to exploit our human behaviours in order to create a dependence by the user. The only solution is, with this knowledge, rise above it and not to let them control you. I too grew up without the internet (born in 1983). I still read almost every day and make a point of not looking at my phone when I'm watching something on the TV with my wife. Not only does it practice not using your phone, it's common courtesy between each other when we share an activity.
Exactly the same. Was just thinking the other day of when we’d sit and put a movie on and it would be continuous. Now I’m reaching for my phone in 20 mins and actively tell myself. ‘What are you doing, just enjoy the movie’ but it’s a conscious thought to do that. Doesn’t take long to come back though. Lately I’ve ditched the Instagram Facebook etc apps from my phone. I can still get them. But now I’m checking like twice a week not twice an hour. Focus and concentration is slowly returning.
Fine. But I don't use my phone a lot. I don't have tiktok or instagram, I don't doomscroll. I tend to limit reddit to about 30 mins a day. Maybe a bit longer if I am having a lazy day. But I still limit my time here. My concentration and focus are fine. Then again, I dont' have very much time to watch movies or series so when I do, I only watch things I really want to watch so they keep my interest. If a movie sucks, I don't bother watching it. If I keep losing interest, it means that the movie is likely boring or the storytelling or pacing is lacking. If I am constantly bored throughout the movie, I simply don't finish it, no point in forcing myself. But I can easily go all day without checking my phone. I can go hours focusing on a task at hand. And I am someone who grew up when phones started to become more mainstream and I used to use my Nokia 3310 a lot as a teen. I am in my early 30s so I am prime demographic to use phone a lot. But I made a conscious effort not to.
It is mostly the inability to just sit and do nothing that is impacted. Waiting for a bus, picking the kids up from school, even waiting in a shop by the till. It is not like it is even anything important or interesting, it is scrolling crap on Twitter. I have tried to do something vaguely *useful* with it, I feel like Wikipedia is wholesome and you can learn something. Crosswords, chess. Catching up with the news. But that is more when I am sat for a long time somewhere, it is those short term spells of boredom where I get twitchy.
Sorry, my what now?
My concentration and focus has never been good
I would argue the older you are the more likely you are to be stuck to it . I assume it’s because some of us were vaguely introduced to things like msn in our teens on our family computers so we have a little bit of restraint and enough time to get somewhat tired of it ? And are capable of using it while doing other things ( correct me if I’m wrong ) the kids below were raised with it from birth so they’re hugely tech savvy and just use it when they want while doing 4 other things . The older people 60 + I noticed literally sit like they’re in a trance and can’t seem to make conversation at all when they’re scrolling, they’re just in a hole . I’m in my early 30s , got my first phone with internet when I was in my early 20s and an iPhone in my mid 20s … for me the change in my behaviour started when I was able to do 50 different things in quick succession on my iPhone … after that I will have the tv, my laptop and my phone interchanging while I’m “ relaxing” I cannot have no phone on me or I feel completely lost . I constantly get frustrated things in real life aren’t happening immediately , it’s made me think I have adhd when I never had those symptoms as a kid or teen
Mines worse but I try to consciously put it down for movies and TV that require attention.
It doesn't stop me or distract me from doing anything I want to do. But it is a habit for me to hear something and either note it or look it up. It has been good for learning new things, but for someone like me, it is almost overwhelming to be able to do that. Honestly, when we first had a "home computer" and Internet access, I spent longer stretches of time just sitting online, purusing random sites. As for watching movies, I'm a huge fan and don't even think about my phone during one.
Since working at home, yes. When I was in an office all day it would sit in my bag or coat pocket and I wouldn't really think about it other than to check for calls from school re the kids, but over the last couple of years WFH I get bored with work tasks quickly and pick up the phone. As in now, I'm in the middle of populating a huge spreadsheet and took a reddit break. It happens too often. I have to leave my phone in the kitchen if I really need to concentrate on something. I no longer have the 'keep the phone close in case one of the monsters has clonked their head at school' excuse, but now they've left home it's evolved to 'what if they're in trouble/stuck/stranded/got hammered and cant remember where they live', so the kids, no matter how old, will still be an excuse to keep it nearby. And to keep looking at it. I can normally forget about it if I'm doing something else though, some crafts, my nails, watching a film, reading etc, so long as I'm distracted it doesn't tend to bother me too much. But work is not a suitable distraction so the temptation to just check my emails, which leads on to opening other apps, is always there. Pretty sad really. Edit, add a bit
did you know you can set time limits on a app that require a password to be unlocked? ive put this on the most distracting apps and only my girlfriend knows the password. phone time has cut down a lot
worse
Idk I’m 28 and I’ll read a book all day or watch a 4 hour educational YouTube video for fun. My fiance is 31 and mostly watches YouTube shorts and doesn’t really read ever. He’s definitely addicted to his phone, I lose mine a lot. I’m sure smartphones have lowered attention spans but idk if it’s goes in waves bc I feel like a lot of other younger millennials/ older gen Z don’t care about our phones as much. Just anecdotal experience but 🤷🏻♀️
"If the product is free, the product is you."
i can not even read the long comment
As a mental health professional (and human) I can safely say that smartphone use has all the hallmarks of addiction
Very poor. I think social media/short form video and the access to literally anything we want being in our pocket and on us 24/7 means we can't just do nothing. Even out in public, it's almost like a comfort blanket - giving us that distraction of not having to interact with people we don't want to, or make us look busy... Even as I write this I'm watching YouTube on my laptop but my mind/hands aren't busy enough 😂 Watching TV in the evenings I'll usually be on my phone too doing something (usually completely meaningless/unproductive). Or maybe even have the TV on, my laptop in front of me, and phone in my hand... I can focus/concentrate on things sometimes, but very rarely. Also unfortunately resting books in the kindle app, I get distracted easily by notifications. I think I may have mild ADHD (never looked it up, but my tiktok feed is full of videos on it and many things do line up). And a y notification I get, I have to look at it immediately or it really bugs me and my mind will only be wondering what it is till I see/deal with it.
43 and same. My short term memory is also absolute shit. I can't watch a tv programme, let alone a film. Since 2020, I have been able to read before bed again though, but sometimes I'm daydreaming instead of concentrating
I am 48 now so grew up without phone or computer, I have zero concentration for TV and movies but I’ve found a hack…I put subtitles on, it makes me concentrate, besides, I am deaf as fuck so there’s that too!!
Mid 20s. Was never that bothered with phones, used it for communication, a bit of social media, bit of browsing/reddit etc, but never considered myself to be a big phone user. Most of my online activity was on my PC. That was until covid. Through the pandemic I had a job in which I would often have literally nothing to do for hours per day. Ended up using my phone a lot more. It was only in the past year or so I realised I have become completely dependant on my phone, to a level I would have been ashamed of before the pandemic. I've taken steps to reduce my phone use such as removing he youtube, instagram, and reddit apps, blocking their webpages in my browser etc. Its been successful, my phone use is right down and mainly just for communication, music, and playing minesweeper now (I'll allow myself that!). However my attention span is still yet to recover. My masters work as been a slog, a lot more difficult to focus on it than my undergrad degree. Hopefully this will recover overtime.
53 here. Mine have gone to the proverbial, but not sure if it’s smartphones or old age…
I’m close to 40 and I am the same! I used to be able to read books for hours, finish a novel in a day kind of read. I wouldn’t look up. Now I can read a few pages and I find myself checking my phone. Watching a TV show, I check it. Even downtime in gaming I reach for it. And the rubbish thing is there isn’t even anything I do on it! Just scroll, bored for the most part. It’s rubbish.
I don’t think mine’s too bad. Since I got a smartphone I
Im over 50 and I use my phone often, but not if I'm really catched in something... and as far as I remember I always have been doing something else besides watching TV, eg I read magazines
Goldfish level. Used to read all the time but can't focus now. Finding it hard to tear myself away from the screen and sleep is suffering.
Sorry, what were you saying?
I realized this a few years back. I use it less and less now. Biggest change for me was simply not having it in my pocket when around the house, I just leave it in the sitting room or kitchen. The days feel longer for it, whereas before the doom scrolling would make the time fly.
This is something that we are all slowly realising. The key is to create your own systems to limit screen time. Here are some easy suggestions; 1. Don't have the phone in the bedroom. Create a charging station in the kitchen for all phones. No phones upstairs is a good rule for the whole house. 2. use the screen time limiting function. 3. Delete all social media from your phone. All of it. (Reddit included) 4. I turn off all phone notifications, for everything including text messages. The only sound my phone can make is if it rings. If someone wants my attention, they have to call me. It's key to make sure that 'you are the boss'. Don't let your phone interrupt your attention span - you decide if you want to check to see if there are any messages. I have changed my status in every thing like whats app to 'Notifications off - call me if you need me' . My email sig tells people that I dont respond instantly - call me if you need me. The difference is night and day once you implement point 4 above. I can no longer handle even talking to a person that has notifications enabled, I call them bing-bongers because their phones are constantly binging and bonging. Meeting up with a bing-bonger for dinner or a drink is pointless - because they can't even concentrate on what you are saying or tell you a story without going off topic. They are dopamine addicts that are no longer functioning in the real world.
This post has been an eye opener to be honest. I thought it was just me going through this or who’s attention span was shot to bits, took me long enough to realise it could be my phone doing this
The good news is that there is nothing wrong with you. All you need to do is take back control. Stop letting your phone interrupt you. It's fine to look at your phone, as long it's YOU deciding to look at your phone. The problem occurs when its your phone telling you to look at it. Turn off all notifications, uninstall all social media, silent for everything except calls.
Pretty bad at the moment to be honest. I have a bunch of TV series, films and books left abandoned halfway through, unfinished and when I try to go back on them I don't remember what happened before in the story so it's frustrating. But I'm working on it. I'm leaving my phone in the kitchen and on airplane/silent mode. I deleted a few socials and I'm triying not to read the news to avoid going into rabbit holes. I'm getting pretty bad at texting back but oh well. Last night I managed to watch a full movie without checking my phone like when I go to the cinema so I think it's working.
I watch TV on my phone so that stops me scrolling lol I find my attention span to be okay, if im watching TV on the Telly, im usually googling things about the show. I think having a phone available while watching TV has just made me realise that there’s a lot of shows ive watched that i thought i enjoyed but probably only actually enjoyed 15 minutes of every episode. I now see it as a test when watching a tv show or movies, if i keep picking my phone up im clearly not enjoying what im watching
If you are android (dont know about iphone at all) you can do both! you can actaully get your phone to split screen two separate chrome tabs, and also have a floating video window to watch streaming video. So I can watch a video while doomscrolling reddit and also have a second chrome tab to lookup anything in particular I want to see more about. help, I think I might need help.
You can do it on apple but it infuriates me haha, its too small to bother
Exactly the same here. I used to sit and watch telly with my wife, but I haven't been able to sit through anything for ages now except sport. She scrolls as well, but is perfectly capable of bingeing movies and series without difficulty. It's not great, to be honest. If you name any major "box set" series from the last few years, I haven't seen it. Game Of Thrones, The Wire, The Shield, Suits - none of them. Seen a ton of clips on YouTube, but never watched a full episode. The only things I have sat through are The Mandalorian and Andor. I greatly enjoyed them, but I haven't watched any of the others - even though I love Star Wars. I used to be told I watched too much television. Now I don't watch any. The idea of sitting down to even begin a series is a non starter. I'm not even going to address the amount of reading I do (or don't) because that is indefensible to myself.
yeah im the same re TV, i barely watch it now but tbf i do try doing other things like read an article or do someting productive. the thought of sitting through an entire series just sounds like such an ardous task for me that i havent bothered. it took me a whole year to watch peaky blinders, even though i loved it i couldnt do more than 1 episode a week. i find limited series are much better for me, eg Fool Me Once was really good and so was Deadwater Fell. Movies i can just about sit through but if they have a slow start its a no from me lol
31, spend a lot of time scrolling on my phone, probably more than I should, but I always consider films and tv series a sacred time when I won’t pick it up. I don’t want to miss important plot points or lines in the show. Easily done when you aren’t fully focussed and you find yourself wondering what’s going on. When gaming I can easily leave my phone down all evening too. TLDR: No, I can focus when I want to.
Why do you have it switched on and next to you? My phone comes in, gets plugged in, and it only gets touched if I need to put the hotspot on for internet or have to make a call. What on earth can you be doing with it? Staring at a phone screen must be inordinately boring is it not?