Are young people's attention spans really shrinking? It's more complex than you might think | Marion Thain

Distractions long predated today’s fast-moving online world. Understanding this age-old problem could help us regain control

Marion Thain is professor of culture and technology at King’s College London and director of the Digital Futures Institute

In late-19th-century Britain, Londoners could expect to receive up to 12 postal deliveries a day. Letters were often exchanged with the frequency that we imagine only occurred with the advent of email. Today, archives brim with scrawled missives detailing arrangements to meet for dinner that are made first thing in the morning, only to be followed by an argument unfolding in the middle of the day, culminating in a reconciliation and reinstatement of the plan to meet. All before nightfall.

We tend to think of the pre-digital era as much the same as now but without our myriad digital distractions, but it was not so. With ink blots and wild fountain-pen trails going up the margins, it is clear these historical writers were dashing off many such letters in a day. With the doormat filling up with mail every hour or so, even a gentleman or woman of leisure might have been forgiven for feeling rather distracted.

Marion Thain is professor of culture and technology at King’s College London and director of the Digital Futures Institute

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