This is a massive problem for all generations, but much worse for millennials because they happened to be born in this new media heavy world. It’s almost impossible for them to revert back to what most of experienced growing up. With that said, they have a much better ability to multi task when consuming media than other generations.
Youngsters simply have more time between school and sleep to keep up with the fast changes. However, FOMO is a much stronger force when you can be plugged in 24/7 so no question millennials are losing sleep. In fact, I will speculate this has added to the social pressures of teenagers since more and more of their lives are lived online. You don’t want to miss out on all the social media things your friends are participating in. Think about bullying even, you simply can’t get away today. If someone picks on you at school, it continues online after school. If you’re the cool kid, there is pressure to keep up your coolness online all the time.
The situation is pretty fked up and unhealthy IMO. It’s not just millennials that are engaging less in person though, it’s everyone. Our smart phones are unfortunately now one-stop shops for everything in life so we are simply bound to spend more time fixed to it.
My advice:
1. to consume more sports, look for extended highlights after the event is done. I do this for everything from NFL to Golf to running. You don’t need to watch anything love anymore, you’ll be watching commercials 50% of the time anyway.
2. Podcasts and audiobooks - you can listen to these while running. There are speech speed controls that you can regulate to consume content much faster. Start with 1.25x and work your way to 2x. I can consume a book in less than one week on my runs now.
3. If you’re an adult you don’t need social media accounts unless you have lots of family members with accounts and you want to just tune in to see pictures sometimes.
4. Consolidate your online interactions. For example, if you have a big circle of friends suggest a single WhattsApp group where you all can chat simultaneously. I Have family outside the US so I am thankful for something like this. And yes from there you can easily dial someone and have conversations.
5. Set boundaries. Not much will change in 5min, 30min, 3hrs. You don’t need to check in every 10seconds. Especially at night, have a rule for not touching your devices after a certain time. Parents need to do this for their kids today, an almost impossible task but is critical. If you want to see your kids grow into functioning adults set boundaries, but you need to follow them as well as the example speaks louder than your authority.