We all know that smartphones and digital distractions in general do steal our attention, and probably we all think we should do less of it. I remember reading this in the paper a couple of years ago, and it's come back to me, 

 

'Hourly worker productivity...flat-lined since the 2008 financial crisis, and the UK [began] to lag far behind rival economic powerhouses such as the US and Germany....'

 

...and they went on to say that Dan Nixon, a senior Bank of England analyst, thought it could be due to workers spending so much time checking devices that it affects their productivity.  

I've noted before that when we think we are multi-tasking and being super efficient, just checking our phones, we are in fact continuously switching attention. And this really depletes mental energy. 

It leaves us in the unhappy mental state of 'continuous partial attention', never really present to anything. I can't help thinking about this when I see see children trying to attract the attention of carers engrossed in their phones - what are we modelling to them? 

 

What do you think? Is this a real problem or am I bigging it up?