The Lummi Blog

On reading & attention

Field notes on why we scroll, how we read, and the quiet war for the minutes in between. Mostly data. Occasionally opinions.

Investigation · 20 years of attention research

How We Stopped Paying Attention

In 2004 the average person stayed on one screen for two and a half minutes. Today it's 47 seconds. What actually shrank, which famous statistics turn out to be invented, and what the randomized trials say about getting it back. Five charts, twenty studies.

Investigation · 100 years of data

How America Stopped Reading

We spent a century winning near-universal literacy, then quietly closed the books in about forty years. A fully-sourced look at who still reads, who quit, and what actually broke the habit. Seven charts, a hundred years of receipts.