The average human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish - seriously

Uh-huh. That article reads more like marketing BS than anything real or informative. Take it with a grain, or three, of salt.
 
You can see this in everyday life with music today compared to music in the 60s and 70s. Music today is all ADD trash nowadays. It's made by people with ADD and consumed by people with even shorter attention spans. Not looking at your cellphones means you are no longer with it.
 
You can see this in everyday life with music today compared to music in the 60s and 70s. Music today is all ADD trash nowadays. It's made by people with ADD and consumed by people with even shorter attention spans. Not looking at your cellphones means you are no longer with it.

*Insert "oldmanyellsatclouds" meme here.*
 
*Insert "oldmanyellsatclouds" meme here.*
Was thinking this would be a better response.

b0c.jpg
 
Stupid click-bait headline. There is nothing meaningful about comparing the attention span of a goldfish and a human other than it makes for a seemingly derogatory headline that people will then click on.

Article said:
A recent study found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 (or around the time smartphones hit the scene) to eight seconds today.

So basically, the more access to information that people have, the less likely they are going to be to dwell on any one particular piece of information. Is this supposed to be revolutionary research?

Before smartphones, people had longer attention spans because they actually had to use a computer to use the internet. Before computers, people had longer attention spans because they had to use non-DVR televisions and/or radio. Before televisions and/or radio people had longer attention spans because they had to read printed media (newspaper, books, etc). See the trend? The part that the article does not go into, is whether this is actually a bad thing or a good thing.

I'm guessing that people sitting in prison have pretty long attention spans. Should I be jealous?

And I'm pretty sure that smartphones started coming out around 2007, not 2000. Maybe the author has attention-span issues?

Article said:
This creates a significant challenge for marketers, whose entire job is to cut through the noise and meaningfully engage with consumers.

In today’s over-saturated digital world, marketers need smart strategies for making the most of the eight second attention span.

Oh no, those poor marketers. Let's push the idea that this is obviously an attention span epidemic, and not simply a result of what happens when people are blasted with so many ads everywhere they look that we now have entire generations that have learned to tune-out and ignore advertisements.
 
"A recent study found that the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 (or around the time smartphones hit the scene) to eight seconds today"

This has got to be talking about how long people pay attention to commercials. If attention spans were that short nothing would ever get done and we would all be dead.

Oh look... a peanut...
 
*Insert "oldmanyellsatclouds" meme here.*
It's a known thing among songwriters these days that you have to hit the hook right off and keep everything simple. If you don't instantly grab the listener they're moving on to the next song faster than a blink. It's a sad state of affairs that goes well beyond just music.
 
Stupid click-bait headline. There is nothing meaningful about comparing the attention span of a goldfish and a human other than it makes for a seemingly derogatory headline that people will then click on.



So basically, the more access to information that people have, the less likely they are going to be to dwell on any one particular piece of information. Is this supposed to be revolutionary research?

Before smartphones, people had longer attention spans because they actually had to use a computer to use the internet. Before computers, people had longer attention spans because they had to use non-DVR televisions and/or radio. Before televisions and/or radio people had longer attention spans because they had to read printed media (newspaper, books, etc). See the trend? The part that the article does not go into, is whether this is actually a bad thing or a good thing.

I'm guessing that people sitting in prison have pretty long attention spans. Should I be jealous?

And I'm pretty sure that smartphones started coming out around 2007, not 2000. Maybe the author has attention-span issues?



Oh no, those poor marketers. Let's push the idea that this is obviously an attention span epidemic, and not simply a result of what happens when people are blasted with so many ads everywhere they look that we now have entire generations that have learned to tune-out and ignore advertisements.

Cliff Notes?
 
It's a known thing among songwriters these days that you have to hit the hook right off and keep everything simple. If you don't instantly grab the listener they're moving on to the next song faster than a blink. It's a sad state of affairs that goes well beyond just music.

Pretty much the story of any music you can dance to since the beginning of time.
 
It's a known thing among songwriters these days that you have to hit the hook right off and keep everything simple. If you don't instantly grab the listener they're moving on to the next song faster than a blink. It's a sad state of affairs that goes well beyond just music.

That's always been the case for pop music. The only reason it seems to be more of a thing now days is because there is a wealth of choices and we're not stuck to listening to whatever crap comes on the radio. Its easier than ever to find music we like and create our own playlists of music or explore a massive library of customized stations that cater to specific tastes. It has nothing to do with attention span or that garbage, it's all about people have more choices so they aren't bound to the old way of doing things.
 
Didn't even read link or thread before commenting, I don't have any attention span left :(

I blame Bush Sr.
 
Attention spans are a lot like finely chiseled physiques: there's an element of genetic predisposition, but, ultimately, it's a trained/honed/acquired trait. Your genes might predispose you towards putting on muscle mass much more easily than most, but if you don't lift weights and eat well, you're not going to be jacked/ripped/cut.

A lot of what we have today allows us to get through life with very short attention spans. This isn't a bad thing: it means a lot of rudimentary BS has now been automated - think online banking vs balancing a paper checkbook. I don't think many would agree that spending hours on such basic stuff is useful.

With the basic covered through automation, that frees up a lot of brain time to spend on all of the non-basics. These non-basics are all "free" and "luxury" type items. Some of them are pure leisure (ie, online gaming), but many of them are actually quite useful such as applying creativity to solve problems. It's pretty well established that there tends to be a correlation between creative people and an elevated rate of ADD/ADHD. I think most people at the forefront of STEM fields will agree that there is major value in traits that are more recently considered ADHD - but only as long as they're balanced by a degree of self-imposed focus.

The concern with a lot of our automation and mobile computing is that, with so much of gen pop's lives being replaced with automation, there isn't any real motivation to hone our tools for focus. Is that an inherently bad thing? Ehhh, I dunno. It's certainly a disease of affluence, and you can't catch those until you're living a pretty good life.
 
Reading the "top tips" section I primarily thought:

OK I'm definitely a boomer because I'm like the opposite of all that. :oldman:
 
This is a gonourmous click-bait article full of made up information and statistics pulled from asses, with some infographics thrown on top to make it look better.
 
Yes, but how would scientists accurately measure the attention span of a goldfish?
 
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That article is about how marketers have less time to market.
Attention span, my ass. Make an interesting ad and people would watch it. I here watching football and the only ad that got me was the Swedish chef from sesame street, but I don't remember the product name, only that it was some kind of face-time bullcrap. So, even that was a bad ad.
 
When I was younger I used to go to the Clio Awards (basically an award show for good ads). Now I don't want to watch ads even if you paid me; there's so much garbage out there now.
 
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