Johann Hari’s godson Adam, though an “intelligent, decent, kind” young man (4), dropped out of high school and seemed unable to focus on anything and was usually preoccupied with watching videos on his phone. Concerned about Adam’s well-being, Hari was also developing the same issues—spending more time on his devices and much less time reading, which he now found challenging for his concentration. Hari offered to take Adam, an Elvis Presley fan, to Elvis’s mansion Graceland on the condition that Adam would only look at his phone in the evenings. At Graceland, however, tours were only offered on iPads. Hari was incredulous that people would come there only to ignore their surroundings, and was also disappointed that his godson constantly broke their promise to look at his phone. Hari tried to persuade Adam that his dependency on his phone was causing him to miss out on life, but realized that he was mostly angry at himself for his own diminishing attention span—a ubiquitous societal problem.

Researching the subject, Hari grew more concerned. There is little long-term data about how attention span has changed over the last few generations. However, scientists have identified factors that impede concentration. Hari contends that these factors are becoming more common, pointing to recent research showing how challenging it is for many people to pay attention.