Many people these days, Cannot pay attention. Instead, they have to be doing ten things at once, Or they often feel off balance. We watch tv, Or go out with friends, and are only half paying attention to the things around us. Instead of listening to the story your friend is excited to tell, you instead are focusing only on your phone.
Getting someones attention is getting increasingly harder as we become better at tuning things out.

More And More People Have Trouble Staying Focused

We can't seem to focus these days. Things that should be taking 10 minutes or less are starting to drag on for hours. All because every two seconds we pull out our phones, or do something we really shouldn't be.
Because focusing on that one task is just too much.

Better At Listening

When you pay attention, It's easier to listen to what the other person is saying, Which is obvious. When you are too absorbed with the contents of your phone. You can't fully grasp the story or concepts that someone is telling you. And because of this, people are dying to be listened to.

Grasp Concepts Faster

There is no such thing as multi-tasking, When you "think" you are multitasking you are just rapidly switching from one task to the next. Which causes you to slow down on your goals and rapidly overloads your brain.
When you pay attention, you can get through things faster because you aren't forced to switch your focus back and forth.

It Takes Practice

I'm working on a second article that will help go over some of the ways you can improve your attention span.
Like most things in life, It simply requires lots of practice. But Improving your ability to pay attention can be done.