Srinagar, Nov. 7 -- Attention has become the scarcest resource of the twenty-first century-more contested than oil, more monetised than data, and more fragile than privacy. In classrooms, offices and homes, a generation raised on infinite scroll is discovering that the ability to think deeply is not automatic; it must be defended.

The 47-second mind

Research by University of California, Irvine informatics professor Gloria Mark found that people once spent about two and a half minutes on a single screen before switching tasks. By 2012, that figure had fallen to 75 seconds; in recent years, it has dropped to roughly 47 seconds.

This is not merely impatience. It is a measurable transformation in how human beings encounter information. The...