My attention has collapsed in recent times, but it's not because of mobiles. It's because I have three young kids. You literally have to keep your eye on them at all times so you stop them killing themselves.
Also, going from 8 hrs of sleep a night + 1 hr of intensive sport a day to 4-5 hrs of sleep a night and 1 hr of sport a year is an absolute mind killer.
When I was younger I could never imagine going into management, as I'm "not a multitasker". Turns out all I needed to do was to never focus on anything for more than 1 minute..
I would say that your attention has improved rather than collapsed, it is now again focused on the real world around you instead of on a virtual window into a world that isn't really there.
I'm talking about during work. I work from home and the covid restrictions here (NL) mean that I've had the kids at home an average of two days a week. I also have a high pressure + important job (the NL COVID apps the last 6-7 months one of the key technical people driving the EU-DCC and other vaccination credentials).
I've had to stop coding because of it; finally admitted defeat (I love coding) and have essentially 10x'd my effectiveness. So there's that.
Before COVID my screen time with the kids was when sitting waiting for them to go to sleep, or feeding during the night (or staying up with them).
For me it was exact same. Even when kids were safe, they wanted my attention approximately every 10 minutes. That destroyed my attention span quite seriously.
It got back after a while and effort, but social media were not to blame.
This 100x! I am in the same boat, ours are 4 and 2. I recently installed rings and a super sturdy pull up bar next to the kids room and hope to do some basic calisthenics there with the kids before putting them to bed. Wish me luck. So far they really like it and I get at least a mini-workout out of it. Nothing like an hour at a real gym, but better than nothing.
Yes, that hits the system. I was more or less back to normal then got a second round :( But this time recovery was swift, no more than a week or two, the only thing remaining is the cough.
> 1 hr of intensive sport a day to 1 hr of sport a year
did you make this tradeoff by choice( vs religious reasons ect) . I've never been that active but you sound like someone who enjoyed sports and being active.
As a parent with a 3 and 4 year old who was only a functional adult if I worked out intensely at least 4 days per week, and now is struggling desperately to get that back, its not by choice. Children are just really demanding. I think a big part of the problem is that humans were not meant to raise children in isolated family units. You were meant to have a small village where they could go bother different adults and older children and learn from everyone to find a little niche for them, and everyone just kind of kept an eye on the kids so that the parents could do normal survival things like cook, work, and make.
They used to die in accidents a lot more then now. They used to be independent significantly sooner too. Like, 5 years olds herding gooses next to river with no adult independent.
COVID. I've also been working 80hr weeks for nearly two years now; first building the NL Contact Tracing (GAEN) app and then building the EU and NL vaccination credential systems. Both of which I'm proud of - our work saved lives - and it's worth having a couple of hectic years.
Honestly it wouldn't have been much different if I had been on a normal project; with the COVID measures the kids were at home (so no day sport) and by the time they're asleep the gym is closed. We moved during COVID - I even built my house gym - but it's covered in boxes which we've not had time to sort out (and they're from my wife's crap, so I can't touch them).
My wife owns a group of pharmacies and has been as busy as I have been - they've been running on emergency mode for almost two years, same thing as in most of the medical industry.
Fuck man, me too. I've heard that this is just a phase that passes, but some days I think that I'm never going to be able to go back to being able to focus for 12+ hours a day.
Also, going from 8 hrs of sleep a night + 1 hr of intensive sport a day to 4-5 hrs of sleep a night and 1 hr of sport a year is an absolute mind killer.
When I was younger I could never imagine going into management, as I'm "not a multitasker". Turns out all I needed to do was to never focus on anything for more than 1 minute..