Not just smartphones, but the internet in general in my experience.

I'm not much of a smartphone user, I have the latest phone but I'm not a power-user at all. But I have the same issues talked about.

For me it's related to how I consume information, it's very non-linear. Wikipedia is probably the best example, you read a page, then come across affiliated topics and click those, you go down the information tree on that topic, then come back up to finish the original one. Such that reading about the history of say a particular city, you'll end up reading about other cities, about pagan religions, about warlords and their particular tactics, about irrigation systems, political theory etc etc. It's extremely non-linear.

And when I research a topic, I find I consume information similarly. When I think about say the environment, I tend to have many tiny questions popping up, and get them answered. This is akin to having a private teacher who has answers to all of a kids' questions, versus a school teacher who has got 60 minutes to cover standardised material in a linear fashion.

Books are extremely linear versus say wikipedia. You flip pages one by one, there's no skipping or switching subjects built in to the design, like say wikipedia or the internet more generally as a source of information. And my brain just can't handle having questions pop up, and wondering about things, and just having to ignore my curiosity to get the book finished. It takes away from the enjoyment for me. Even when I read fiction, and there's a character walking in Paris and looking at the 'famed xyz', with a brief description, I want to look at it! On the internet I'd immediately google it, in a book I just have to accept that I've got no clue what it looks and shut down my curiosity. At least if it exists in the real world, I have no issue with letting my imagination run wild in fiction.

I think and learn the same way, but this is very different behavior from what the article describes.

What you're describing is just a way of learning... Diving deep into the knowledge graph to understand related topics. You non-linearly learn many topics, but you're never really distracted from learning process.

That's a bit different than checking your cell phone for a second before dinner, seeing a twitter notification, responding to your friend, catching up on the past 40 minutes of posts, re-posting viral content, noticing another friend's weekend photos, following an interesting hash tag to other people's posts, seeing a reminder pop up for a game, playing the game, seeing an add for a new movie, watching the trailer, posting it on facebook, noticing a funny meme on your frontpage, following the meme to youtube, watching people play games, and then realizing dinner has been cold for a while.

The former is scattered learning. The latter is just spinning wheels, literally wasting time. It's dangerous and detrimental to society.

> "And when I research a topic, I find I consume information similarly. When I think about say the environment, I tend to have many tiny questions popping up, and get them answered. This is akin to having a private teacher who has answers to all of a kids' questions, versus a school teacher who has got 60 minutes to cover standardised material in a linear fashion."

This may or may not work for you, but I find it helps to write notes on paper whilst I read, especially non-fiction. That way, I can capture what I was curious about or found interesting whilst still continuing to read. If I then find myself stuck, I can then go back to the notes I made earlier for a starting point to dig into the subject further. Not sure if this would work for fiction, but maybe it'd help with letting go of needing to know and letting your imagination take over.

I have the same, though I learned to tone it down a notch when reading books. So I don't go off totally random tangents - but in places where my curiosity starts to burn me (or I get confused about something the book says and need to verify it), I do one of two things: if I have an Internet-connected device near me, I check it on the spot. If not, I bookmark the page (with dead-tree books I just stuff a random piece of paper in between the pages) and/or take a note on a device, to check it later.

One thing I learned is that you really get more from a book if you read it "linearly". Complex abstractions and mental models can't really be communicated in few bullet points; you have to let the author guide you through the process of constructing them.

I agree that there is no wrong or right in this context. I do however fear that if we are unable to concentrate on media for longer periods of time, the "depth" of the media will diminish. The wonderful thing a book has over a youtube clip is the depth of emotion it can describe.

You engage in a real emotional thought process, following along with the main character, hoping with them, fearing with them. Short media doesn't have that kind of engagement.

Also, creative thinking seems to rely on long thought chains in order to build complete things. Amongst others, self-interrupting every couple minutes is what made my creativity tank over the past years (and my ability to get lost in a book).

I feel the same way about movies, as well as TV shows and plays.

But I suspect film makers and the likes are already starting to realise that a lot of their audience feels like this. Why? Because in a lot of modern entertainment, you'll notice a general reluctance to continue with one 'theme' for more than a few minutes or so.

Note how many TV shows seem to cut from scene to scene a lot more quickly than they once did.

How many films seem to rely on too many jumpcuts and shaky camera angles and rapid fire dialogue.

How many newer video games seem like they're literally falling apart as you play, with the level quickly changing from one new mechanic to another every 30 seconds-1 minute.

That's not a bad thing (the level design in the likes of Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze or Rayman Legends is awesome), but there's definitely a feeling that as a result of lower attention spans, works have tried to make everything as dynamic and fast paced as possible.