nenspace

cant read more than a few pages anymore without reaching for my phone

Attention fragments before the sentence finishes. The phone waits in the pocket, a silent alarm. Each buzz promises a new world, while the page offers only the same slow climb.

The mind learns to skim because skimming pays off faster. Deep reading demands a boredom that feels like failure. That boredom is the work. Without it, nothing sticks.

Put the phone in another room. Let the first three pages feel like dragging a stone uphill. The pull will be loud. Let it be loud. The quiet comes after the noise stops.

is it just me or has everyone’s attention gotten worse?

Attention has not degraded; the environment has changed. The world now designs for interruption. Every app, notification, and headline competes for the same neural real estate.

A single page of text offers no reward loop. A feed offers a thousand. The brain follows the path of least resistance. What feels like a personal failure is a predictable response to a hostile landscape.

Others struggle in silence. The noise is universal, but the complaint is often private.