I'm not sure if I've become a multi-tasking wizard or have the focusing skills of a golden lab in a room full of treats.

I began writing this column yesterday but got sidetracked. (Ooh, piece of candy). Can't recall exactly what pulled me away. May have been a phone call, a pause to read another story, a bathroom break or someone sending me a single TikTok that sent me down a rabbit hole.

But I'm back on track (ooh, piece of candy), determined to meet my own self-appointed deadline to complete my task (glances at score of hockey game on the nearby TV) without distraction (incoming text pings from phone deliberately placed out of reach). And as soon as I go check that text, I'll really get down to business (ooh, piece of candy).

Now, I've always had some issues with my attention span. My earliest recollection of this was when I was maybe five or six and a group of adults began screaming at me. It seemed a baseball was headed my way as I serenely plucked some blowflowers (what did you call them?) in the outfield of my very first baseball practice.

In school, if I happened to finish my work ahead of everyone else, it took every ounce of effort for me to sit still. Often, I began bothering my classmates to pass the time. When I did my homework (or even now if I'm writing at home), it had to be as noisy as possible. TV on, stereo on, breaks for Nerf basketball. I love a noisy newsroom, even if it means my own mindless chatter being the only thing to break the silence.

But mostly (ooh, piece of candy) if I needed to, or was enjoying something, I could bear down and fully concentrate for long periods. 

I could study the scoreboard page in the newspaper for hours on end. On a cross-country holiday sojourn, give me one of those old invisible ink quiz books in the back of the RV and I could make it through an entire province without needing a break. As a little fella, I could sit with the family and watch ABC's 'Happy Days-Laverne&Shirley-Three's Company-Taxi' lineup without picking up my Mattel football game once.

I've always been a voracious reader. I used to blast through books off all kinds like they were going out of style. I could read a Hardy Boys book in one sitting and then hit the washroom and churn through a few chapters of Mum's salacious (to a kid) Judy Blume books on the shelf behind the toilet.

I still read non-stop, but I haven't enjoyed an entire hard-copy book in a few years. I went from maybe a book a week in my heyday to one or two a summer, floating in the pool, listening to '80s tunes and re-reading a couple of my favourite tomes. But a couple of summers back, I fell out of the habit when I couldn't get a surgical wound wet and I've sadly lost touch with my beloved books. Maybe this summer (ooh, piece of candy).

The destroyer of my attention span is currently angrily pinging at me again, jealous that my laptop is getting so much attention. That's right, my cellphone has done irreparable damage.

It lures me in with its endless TikToks and Reels and messages and other bite-sized information morsels. My laptop is nearly as bad. I can't watch any full TV show or sporting event without having to click on a zillion websites at the same time. But the phone is the worst, because it comes with you wherever you go.

Go out anywhere and people are on their phones. In a restaurant, conversations are stilted because people can't keep their mitts off their phones. You can almost see folks physically vibrating if there's a lull in the chatter, the powerful lure of their phone a beckoning siren song. When I was a kid, I could be 20 miles away having salt gun fights with my buddies and my parents didn't bat an eyelash as long as I was home as soon as the streetlights came on.

Now, we know where they are at all times, the beep of the Life360 app alerting us to any changes as we check it over and over.

Don't get me wrong, cellphones have many amazing positive applications. I mean, I have 873 pics of my dog at the ready if I bump into someone I haven't seen for years. But it's hard not to miss my elongated attention span. (Ooh, piece of candy).

How's your own attention span? Let me know if you have any tales of how cellphones or other technology have affected your life. What were we talking about?

PQB News/VI Free Daily editor  can be reached by phone at 250-905-0019, or by email at philip.wolf@blackpress.ca.