Our rapidly decreasing attention spans
The reason why
there is a high chance of you not being able to finish this article, is your
depleting attention span. Our attention span is defined as the length of time for which a person is able to
concentrate on a particular activity. So now at least you know why you are
lagging behind in your work.
In case you are
still here and have not scrolled down this article, I must congratulate you, as
you have crossed the average human attention span, which is roughly 8.25
seconds- 0.75 seconds less than that
of a goldfish (not kidding, goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds, look
it up if you don’t believe me).
According to
study, in 2000 we had an average span of 12 seconds and with technology
advancing it will only become lesser. But is that a reason to worry? Probably…
but we can’t be sure. Shorter attention spans are a direct consequence of
technological advancements, but with every step we take towards the future, we
somehow catch up with it (at least that’s how it’s been so far).
The reason I
thought of writing this article was that we should at least be aware of it, so
here’s a pretty apt example:
Most youtubers
these days use a very simple camera trick to make sure users don’t get bored of
the video, and watch it till the end instead of closing it midway and engross
themselves in a cat video compilation. Instead of taking a continuous shot of a
scene, they break it up into a lot of fragments. Whenever they are doing a
monologue while directly looking at the camera, they cut it up into a lot of
parts and then compile all of it.
I don’t know
whether you fully understand what I’m trying to say, but maybe you’ll notice
this the next time you search ||Superwoman|| on youtube. I am giving out one of the video where you can notice the trick easily :
What does this
have to do with attention spans? Everything.
YouTube channels are very aware of the fact that viewers will get bored pretty
fast (8.25 seconds to be exact) and hence employ this technique to keep their viewers
in their grasp.
It’s a world of
instant gratification these days, and so we can’t wait too long for anything.
With the surge of content these days, we get bored too easily! How often do you
make it to the end of a song you are listening to, without fast forwarding to
the next track? How often do you finish reading an article on the net, and
registering the minutest details in your mind? How often do you speed read a
question on your test and later regret it because you missed the important
points?
In closing, I’d
like to say that although we really can’t do much about it, its always good to
know and be aware of the changes in society and human psychology. And if you
truly made it till the end of this article then maybe things aren’t so bad for
you.
Great post! Keep the good stuff coming up! :D
ReplyDeleteYayy!..thanks a lot, though arjun did the job this time :)
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