4 ms·
I'm not personally aware of academic study of this (and haven't looked, admittedly,) but my experience and anecdata from others I've known says that yes it can
by smolder 2y ago
I'm not personally aware of academic study of this (and haven't looked, admittedly,) but my experience and anecdata from others I've known says that yes it can be very affected --our attention spans are malleable and affected by our environment. When I've been going hard on (overstimulated by) low-attention span content like social media, video games, certain video content, it has a pronounced impact on my ability to focus on things longer term.
The best example is reading a book. I end up having to reread sentences and paragraphs frequently as my mind wanders from what the words are conveying. It takes a while to get into the groove of following the thread of the writing. Spending some time in a less stimulating environment like going camping, practicing meditation, or just 'unplugging' seems to be restorative to that ability to focus. Other people have shared similar experiences with me many times as this subject comes up.
Again, my experience, but this capacity for focus applies to many things beyond just reading a book, like tackling programming problems or having a deep and nuanced conversation, effectively communicating complex ideas and being able to receive the same.