Oh so the internet and the endless distractions it brings with it existed in the 19th century as well? /s

You couldn't be more wrong. There is mountains of evidence that attention spans have shorted, and parent comment was a perfect example of that. Can't be arsed to deal with whatever you should be doing? Ctrl + pgdown to the twitch tab.

I don't know about you, but no matter how much I try I can't just spontaneously summon up focus if my mind's not commmited to it. I was that way in school, in uni and now in work.

Working in an office pretending that I can focus on the task at hand whenever required by the roster of office life is one of the biggest charades I've ever performed. It's not possible for me and I piss around on the internet on their time when I am unable to focus. I don't feel that's an abnormal situation for people, either, as it seems many of my colleagues also do it.

Is that so? There was a period during industrial revolution, where people were hopelessly overworked but before that most people must have a had fairly well defined work-life boundaries.

They also had to mend their shoes and wash clothes in the river, so leisure time was not exactly comparable.