How do you prefer to consume content, and how has your focus changed over time?
Lately, after spending a lot of time online, I’ve noticed that the way I consume content has changed, and honestly, not for the better.
When I consume content on social media (or through screens in general), I tend to pay less attention, and my attention span feels much shorter.
On top of that, while exercising, I often listen to videocasts or podcasts, which means I’m not fully focused on one single activity. As a result, I sometimes feel like I’m not absorbing the information as well as I could.
One thing I’ve started experimenting with is reading books, textbooks, or workbooks early in the morning, before touching my phone or any other electronics. So far, it seems to help improve my focus.
How do you balance content consumption (especially digital vs analogue) to avoid shorter attention spans?
And do you prefer e-books or physical books?
Replies
I'd love to be able to sit down and read a physical book, but my mind starts telling me everything I need to do instead. Audiobooks have allowed me to be able to get the information and let me do my chores, but to your point, I am not entirely focused on either.
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@channelscout We have a word for this. It's called "Procrastination" :D
@busmark_w_nika haha touché
Research actually backs this up. Screen reading activates less of the brain and builds weaker neural connections because of a tendency to skim rather than deeply process. Maryanne Wolf covers this really well in Reader, Come Home if you want to go deep on the neuroscience behind it.
Since most of my work is online I end up consuming a lot of content that way by default, but I've noticed the same attention fragmentation you're describing. Physical books feel different, there's something about the lack of notifications and the tactile experience that keeps me more present. I've been trying to be more intentional about single tasking but it's genuinely hard to maintain.
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@ahana_gandhi Highly recommend doing those analogue things since the morning because as you go during the day on your phone, there is a very little chance to go back :)
I have the same problem, especially with business content. Short posts are useful for discovering ideas, but they rarely change how I work unless I turn them into something more concrete.
For anything operational, I now prefer slower formats: books, long notes, checklists, or examples I can come back to later. In sourcing and B2B work, a 30-second insight is usually not enough. The useful part is often in the boring details: what information was missing, what risk appeared later, what assumption made two quotes impossible to compare.
So my balance is: social feeds for discovery, but not for learning. If something matters, I move it into a note or checklist and revisit it when I am actually doing the work.
Physical books still work best for me in terms of focus. E-books are convenient, but they live too close to everything else that wants attention.
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@jinji_huang and you currently described that reason with ebooks why I do not wanna use them, because they are very close to the smarpthones and other similar devices.
I'm reading almost exclusively e-books for several reasons: a) paper books generally appear in our book stores with a considerable delay (months, sometimes a couple of years); b) reading in English is not quite popular in our country, and I'm enjoying reading in English a lot; c) I love reading during meals and I'd hate to leave stains on any of my books; d) I can have as many books as I want in a single small device (especially important while I'm travelling).
With regard to being less focused when reading from screens - yeah, that's happening to me as well, and the only way to avoid this is setting DnD mode. However :D, I tend to forget why I unlocked the phone and I started going through the most used apps (it's like a vicious circle :D)
To sum it up: I'm reading everything that I can read on the e-book reader, retorting to digital devices for online articles or stuff that can't be read comfortably from a small b/w reader
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@sk_uxpin I was thining about e-books too, but then I realised how careless I am with my books and how often I drop them, sit on them, etc. It wouldn't be any different with that e-book. :DDD
@busmark_w_nika hahahaha, good one :D I am pretty careless as well (my wife taught me to have a more relaxed attitude towards objects), so the e-book might suffer as well, I don't care :D I only couldn't ignore damage being done to books, hahaha
I've been focusing on staying more active as I feel looking at my screen a lot tends to either make me feel guilty for wasting time or it gets to the end of the day and all I've done is sat there watching nonsense. I definitely feel like my attention span is shorter, honestly being more active has helped me use my phone when I actually want to. That and building Scrollified hahah new update coming soon - #shamelessplug.
I would love to read more, but honestly finding a good book has become too overstimulating.
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@minhajulll it seems that the more we build, the more attached we are to the digital version. That's the reason why I do those things in the morning.
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@luo_he When you imagine that it is difficult to us not to stare on the phone screen for 45 minutes – we are doomed :D
Physical books. I just put electronics aside for an hour after work. And I purposefully devote an hour to LinkedIn and here
I’ve started preferring slower formats more over time. Physical books or long-form writing hold my attention much better now, while social feeds make it noticeably harder to stay focused on one thing.
I’ve noticed the same, too much scrolling has definitely reduced my focus. What’s helping is no-screen mornings and reading physical books, it improves concentration a lot compared to digital content.
@busmark_w_nika The fact that I read your post while half-listening to a podcast is the most on-brand thing that could happen today. :D Honestly, the morning-reading-before-phone trick is the best hack I've found too. Once the phone is in my hand, the day's attention budget is already half spent. Physical books for me – there's something about not being one tap away from Instagram that makes the words actually land. E-books are convenient, but my brain treats them like just another app. :)