I find it difficult to watch many new movies, particularly of the animated variety, because they jump from one thing to the next within seconds.

Movies catering to technology-induced attention deficit disorder are junk food for the mind. Maybe it's time for information diet nutrition panels.

I think it's a spoiler-culture, where the movie/show/book isn't even worth reading if there isn't some prospect of a petty thrill or twist.

storytelling isn't something to be taken lightly, it's been ingrained in us since the dawn of language. it can affect entire generations in ways nobody understands and very few care to study. The movie 'babe' created vegetarians, scully from 'x-files' inspired women to study STEM, scotty inspired a generation of engineers.

Good point! Not all new stories cater to the attention deficit mind, but those that do now require parents to decide whether they want their impressions made upon their children. As you said, storytelling ought not be taken lightly.

It could be that new movies are tailored to appeal to the distracted mind, or it could be that you are suffering from cognitive decline and are not able to keep up with the times anymore.

I wonder this often at the movie theater, because I've found that I don't tolerate fast paced movies as well as I did before, but I'm a HN senior citizen (I'm 35).

I'm not suffering from cognitive decline as much as suffering from a media that caters to a 2 second attention span. I can hold a thought for at least twice as long as that, on a good day. (/s)

I'm 37 -- your elder! You are welcome to join the other elders in our Tuesday night HN bingo.

I feel the exact same way. Before 2015 i did not even use a smart phone and i think this helped me a lot. Also as a father i think we should fight distraction rather than give in to it. Rather than preach multi tasking we should cultivate the art of doing one thing at a time.

It's the reverse for me - I can't follow any pre-80s movie because they're too damn slow. I get bored halfway between two plot-relevant scenes.

I talked about it a bit with some people and I believe it's just a function of which movies you're used to. I get bored and confused by movies that for my mother are perfectly paced.

I can barely see 5 movies a year. I might be lost to Hollywood.

Those are just bad movies.

Alas, too often I see the opposite—good movies without flashy action are called bad and boring :(

That makes 95% of art films 'bad' and 'boring,' which makes me sad.

For a large group of people, such as a society, inattention may be good for innovation and mutation, while for a single person, attention is the best way to really do something in his life.