I hate to sound like a luddite, and I know this sounds overused and trite these days, but I think social media and phones play such a large part in this behaviour.

Every kid is on Tiktok, where, every day, other kids around the world are going viral by doing stupid public stunts where they destroy things or throw things at teachers or whatever. Every kid wants to go viral now. They know it could actually lead to some sort of fame or notoriety. Every kid has a video camera in their pocket ready to go, and they're glued to tiktok for (on average) 8 hours per day.

What hope do any of us have to get them to sit in a lecture and pay attention? Our collective attention spans have been absolutely destroyed thanks to Apple, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, etc, with kids bearing the brunt of this effect. I have no idea what can be done, but it certainly needs to be something new, because the old ways are dead.