More adults are being diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition that affects attention, impulse control and activity levels). One popular explanation blames the "attention economy": apps, feeds and notifications built to compete for our attention. A new commentary in the journal Australasian Psychiatry argues that current evidence does not support putting this explanation ahead of the others.
What kind of article this is
This is not a new study. Laurence Cobbaert, Rosiel Elwyn and Georgia Pavlopoulou wrote a reply to an earlier article by Jesudason and colleagues, which linked the rise in adult diagnoses to digital environments. The reply is an argument based on existing research. It gathers no new data. It appeared online on 5 November 2026, ahead of print.
The authors' main points
The authors make a distinction that is easy to miss. Being diagnosed as an adult is not the same as the condition starting in adulthood. Many adults may have had ADHD traits all their lives without anyone recognising them. The authors list other explanations that deserve equal weight: late recognition, ADHD being under-diagnosed or misdiagnosed in the past, and diagnostic practices that left some groups out.
They also point out that more people taking ADHD treatment, or more prescriptions, does not prove that more people actually have the condition. Those figures can rise for other reasons, such as greater awareness or easier access to assessment.
Screens and attention: which causes which?
The commentary addresses studies that connect heavy digital use with ADHD traits. In the authors' view, these links show that the two tend to occur together. They do not show which one causes the other. Digital environments might make long-standing difficulties more visible, or worse, without creating ADHD. Problematic phone or internet use might also be a result of ADHD-related vulnerabilities, not their cause.
The authors agree with parts of the original article. They support its warnings against quick, simplistic diagnoses, against using stimulant medication to boost performance, and against treating ordinary difficulties as medical problems without careful thought.
What remains uncertain
This is an expert exchange of views, not a test of either explanation. The commentary does not measure how much each factor contributes to the rise in diagnoses. Readers can take away one useful idea for judging headlines on the topic: a link between screen use and attention problems does not, on its own, show that screens cause ADHD.
