I personally think that needs some definition and study. People are less interested in being bored because they can avoid it. It really depends on what’s going on and what the task is. If I’m standing in line, it’s not a lack of attention being on my phone. It’s a lack of interest in being immersed in staring at the floor waiting in line. If I’m in a meeting of someone talking to hear their own voice, I’m going to look at my e-mail. I guess in the past I zoned out, but neither is indicative of my attention span.

I always see these things not making a distinction on whether someone is actually trying to pay attention or not. I’m also kind of less sure that attention is trained - that your kids attention span is primarily set by whether they watch TikTok vs full Disney movies. This seems like a bit of a facile comparison.

For instance, if I’m actively working on something, I can pay attention to it for at least a few hours. It’s just that I’m often blocked, waiting on another person or process to complete. Or I’m actively responding to e-mails, which again looks like blipping from task to task, but really isn’t. Of course, I’m not a kid, but I recall all the “soundbites rather than analysis” from the 90s when I was a teen.

You know what I did before the internet? Be bored. A lot. It was fucking boring. It was unbearably dull. If people want to fill their lives with tiktok when they are waiting at a bus stop instead of just staring into nothing, more power to them.

I used to watch boring, crap fucking TV just because there was four TV channels and it was raining outside. Already read all my books twice over. Awful.