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I can’t read anymore.

I mean, I can read. But not as deeply as I used to. Sure, I scroll through my New York Times app, the emailed version of the Times Union, and a couple of other curated news sites. But do I fully finish any of the articles? I’d be lying if I said that I did.

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I know I am not alone. Nearly everyone I know gripes about how their phones, and the internet, have commandeered their free time. We all seem powerless to stop jumping when a text dings, doomscrolling, and endlessly looking up answers to the most mundane questions.

This summer, I am trying to retrain my own brain. Since I don’t really work anymore, I should have the extra mental energy to do it. Who knows, maybe I can relearn how to sit quietly for hours, absorbed in “Bleak House” or the latest Sara Paretsky thriller. I think it’s possible to actually read a few long-form articles in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, and not click away to hairstyles on Pinterest or online Tarot card readings.

But is it worth doing, in a world where it’s no longer necessary to fully absorb ideas and concepts in order to get by? Am I just clinging to a dying era?

Some writers predict that the general decline of deep reading in our society and the decreased ability to think abstractly, or to be introspective,........

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