Shut. It. Down.

I'm not sure when I first pin pointed it, but I know that for awhile now I have become very aware of my failing ability to wait.  To only focus on one thing at a time.  To not need to be mindlessly distracted by something at any given moment of the day.

I think it first dawned on me at the grocery store.  I stood there in line behind a couple other people, silently dreading the minutes ahead where I would have nothing to do but.....wait.  So to pass the time I pulled out my phone and checked my email.  Nothing too exciting, so I logged onto Facebook.  Even less thrilling, so I played a word in Words with Friends.  This killed all of about three minutes, so I put my phone away and went back to scanning magazine headlines. With still one person ahead of me in line, I pulled the phone back out and went back to checking email. 

I do this a lot now.  During commercials when I'm watching TV, waiting for something to come out of the oven while I'm cooking dinner, sometimes even sitting at a red light.  And that last one is truly awful because I hate when drivers are paying attention to their phones and not paying attention to traffic lights.  Sadly, at times I am a hypocrite. 

But where does it come from?  This constant need to be distracted?  Is it all part of the new technology smart phone craze, both of which definitely make distraction more readily available, or is there more to it than that?  Personally, I think being able to have instant access to just about everything through our phones is changing the way our minds operate.  We are very much an instant gratification society, and since having to wait for anything is seen as a huge inconvenience these days, I think a lot of us (myself included) simply don't know how to wait anymore.  Even for something as miniscule as checking out at the grocery store. 

Does anyone else out there have a constant need to be distracted?  Is being able to focus completely one one task at a time becoming a thing of the past?  Please, enlighten (or distract....) me with your input.