I am in the same boat as the OP. Loved reading when I was younger, everything from newspapers to novels.<p>What I find myself doing now with most long-form Web or mobile content, as well as printed magazines and newspapers, is skimming to get the basic facts or quotes and then moving on. I just don&#x27;t have the time or attention to stay focused anymore.<p>As for books (fiction and nonfiction), I find myself skimming when I using the Kindle. The Kindle Fire is even worse because of the easy access to other distractions. For printed books I can focus but I have found my threshold for abandoning a book is much lower. I did this recently with a novel by an author I used to love; I just felt the characters in the new novel were wooden and I noticed some basic editing errors. I returned the book to the library after about 40 or 50 pages.<p>As for the reasons behind this: I am not a programmer so for me the issue is not related to dealing with short lines of code. I think it is a combination of information overload, easy access to screens, and training our minds (through exposure to text messages, tweets, online updates, short video clips, etc.) to prefer condensed communication.<p>The trend makes me uncomfortable, but on the other hand, I also see it as part of the evolution of media and society. If we look back through history, we can see how other new media had a similar impact. Newspapers, film, and television changed styles of writing and peoples&#x27; preferences for reading materials and storytelling. Then, as now, there was great discomfort in the way media and storytelling evolved. A 1961 speech by the then-chairman of the FCC called television a &quot;vast wasteland.&quot; If you go further back, there was negative reaction to the introduction of radio, the use of photos in newspapers, and even opera, which was seen by 17th-century British intellectuals as &quot;chromatic torture.&quot; There has been a lot of thoughtful expository writing about this; if you are interested (and can manage to read an entire book) I recommend checking out Mitchell Stephens &quot;The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word&quot; (1) and Walter Ong&#x27;s &quot;Orality and Literacy&quot; (2). They are somewhat dated now, but I think they really documented important transitions from antiquity to the end of the 20th century.<p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nyu.edu&#x2F;classes&#x2F;stephens&#x2F;rise%20of%20the%20image%20page.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nyu.edu&#x2F;classes&#x2F;stephens&#x2F;rise%20of%20the%20image...</a><p>2. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Orality-Literacy-Anniversary-Edition-Accents&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0415538386" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Orality-Literacy-Anniversary-Edition-A...</a>