A two-hour movie can take me two or three sittings. Not because it is boring, not because I am busy, nor because I have anything particularly important to do.

I just keep checking my phone.

I will sit down with the movie playing with my phone placed face down beside me, as if that tiny gesture means I have defeated technology. Twenty minutes later, my phone somehow made it to my hands.

I don’t even know why. There was no notification that woke my screen up. I don’t even remember when or why I picked it up.

My brain simply went, “Hey, what if we checked Instagram?” and that was enough for me.

Fifteen minutes later, I am watching a video of someone making a miniature swimming pool for their hamster, while the movie is paused on a man running to save his life from a bunch of soulless aliens. 

This is what our phones have done to us. We have become a generation that cannot tolerate the terrifying concept of doing just one thing at a time.

We have forgotten how to concentrate

Think about a normal day.

You wake up and check your phone before your eyes have properly adjusted to daylight. You eat breakfast while watching something. You travel to work or class while scrolling. You sit in class while secretly checking WhatsApp or Messenger. You work with multiple tabs open. Then, at the end of the day, you decide to relax by watching a movie.

Except you don’t really watch the movie.

You watch the movie and your phone.

A notification appears. You check it. You reply to someone. You open Instagram. You see a reel. Then another. Somehow, you end up watching a man restore a 40-year-old rusty Mustang in rural Japan.

You look back at the television, completely forgetting the plot of the movie.

People casually say they have ADHD whenever they cannot concentrate for five minutes. Actual ADHD, of course, is a real neurodevelopmental condition and is much more complicated than being distracted. But a lot of us have developed remarkably poor attention habits.

Our phones have trained us to expect everything instantly. Short videos, short posts, quick answers and constant updates.

If something does not grab our attention immediately, we move on. A 2 hour movie, unfortunately, cannot compete with that.

The internet has given us a very simple solution to boredom: swipe.

Don’t like the video? Swipe.

Don’t like the song? Skip.

Don’t like the post? Scroll.

Don’t like what someone is saying? Close the app.

There is always something else waiting and that has changed the way we experience ordinary life.

Waiting for a friend? Phone.

Waiting for food? Phone.

Waiting for the bus? Phone.

Sitting alone for 30 seconds? Phone.

Going to the toilet? You already know the answer.

We have almost eliminated boredom from our lives. The moment nothing is happening, we reach for a screen. But boredom used to be useful. It gives your brain room to wander. You could sit somewhere and simply think or day-dream. 

Now, silence feels like a technical problem and this is why a movie can suddenly feel difficult.

A movie asks you to sit still and follow a story. Sometimes nothing happens for a few minutes because characters talk or there is a boring montage.  Our brains, getting impatient, are waiting for the next hit of stimulation.

“Is this it?”

My three-sitting cinema experience

My personal experience with this is slightly embarrassing. I can turn a two-hour movie into a three-sitting event. It’s embarrassing because I consider myself to be somewhat of a cinephile. I used to watch 2-3 movies in a day without reaching for my phone. But now, it’s a lot different.

Sitting one: I watch 40 or 50 minutes before getting distracted.

Then I tell myself I will take a “short break”. The short break lasts an hour.

Sitting two: I return to the movie, watch another 30 minutes and realise I have forgotten half of what happened earlier.

Sitting three: I finally finished it.

At this point, I have spent three days with these characters. I have eaten meals with them, I have slept between their plot developments. We have been through a lot together.

And every time I pause a movie, I tell myself the same lie: “I’ll continue it in a bit.”

“Bit” is one of the most dangerous words in the English language. A bit becomes an hour. An hour becomes bedtime. Bedtime turns into tomorrow.

Eventually, the unfinished movie sits on my streaming app, silently judging me while begging to be seen.

We are addicted to being stimulated

The strange thing is that our phones have not simply distracted us from entertainment. They have changed what we expect entertainment to be.

We expect something to happen all the time. A joke, a twist, a notification, a new video, a new piece of information.

A movie cannot provide that every second.

Sometimes it demands silence. Sometimes it wants to build tension. And sometimes it wants you to watch a character simply walk into a room.

Because we are so used to scrolling, we start confusing slow with boring.

And that is one of the biggest problems with the attention economy: we have become impatient with anything that requires patience.

Put the phone away

The annoying part is that I know exactly what the solution is: putting the phone somewhere else. Not face down beside me, not silent, not under a pillow, but somewhere else entirely.

Because if the phone is within reach, eventually I will reach for it. And when I actually manage to put it away, something strange happens.

The movie gets better. Not because the movie changed, because I finally paid attention.

I notice the dialogue. I know who the characters are. I remember what happened ten minutes ago. I am actually watching the movie instead of constantly looking for something else to do.

For two whole hours, my brain stops asking, “What’s next?”

It just stays there.

Maybe that is what our phones have really changed. We are not just distracted anymore. We have become uncomfortable with doing nothing else.

So tonight, I might try something completely unreasonable: watching a whole movie without touching my phone. I’ll turn off the notifications, put the phone across the room, sit down and press play.

And if you don’t hear from me for two hours, don’t worry. I am probably doing something extremely radical. I am watching a movie with my phone on DND.