A Goldfish has a longer attention span than you!

Remember when we used to read articles in newspapers and magazines? How many lists would you find in those articles? There were not many, so our brains had to think. If you did encounter a list, it was usually because it was a subsection and relevant to the article and not actually the article!

Things seem to have changed with the advent of Internet. More and more we are finding nothing but lists. For example:

10 ways To Become Incredibly Charismatic - Business Insider
10 ways to Improve Your Morning Routine – Entrepreneur
10 ways to burn calories without stepping foot in the gym - CNN.com
10 ways Analytics Are Accelerating Digital Manufacturing – Forbes
10 ways to manage the migration crisis | World news | The Guardian
10 ways to soothe a Sore Throat - Health.com

Have people become so lazy and conditioned to a quick fix that they can no longer take the time to read an article that presents more than a list of something? Microsoft conducted a study that surveyed 2,000 people and used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to monitor the brain activity of another 112 in the study. The goal was to determine the impact that smartphones, and the increased availability of digital media and information have had on our daily lives. Although the findings showed that our ability to multi-task has drastically improved in the information age, it also showed how our attention spans have fallen. In 2000 the average attention span was 12 seconds, but this has now fallen to just eight. The goldfish is believed to be able to maintain a solid nine. Now I am not sure how they would study the goldfish’s attention span but should this be true I would say that our generation might be in some real trouble if our attention span has been reduced to that level.

After all, look around and it is not difficult to see why this is happening. We have become the generation that is constantly checking our phones, emails, Facebook’s, Twitters for updates and notifications. We need instant gratification from the Internet. For this reason, lists and bulleted information have become so popular. People are attracted to lists because they bring order to chaos. When the information is organized and presented in miniature block form, our brain does not have to do the work itself. Lists relieve stress and focus the mind. The amounts of characters we use from Twitter to Facebook have been reduced to a minimum. Sites such as Instagram or Pinterest reduce that further by focusing on graphics instead.

In a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, Alvaro Retana, a distinguished technologist with Hewlett-Packard, expressed concerns about humans’ future ability to tackle complex challenges. “The short attention spans resulting from the quick interactions will be detrimental to focusing on the harder problems, and we will probably see a stagnation in many areas: technology, even social venues such as literature,” he predicted. “The people who will strive and lead the charge will be the ones able to disconnect themselves to focus on specific problems.”

We can see this happening more increasingly as Internet users rely on the first bit of information they find on a topic, assuming that they have found the ‘right’ answer, rather than using context and questioning the sources of information to gain a better understanding of a topic.

On the opposite side, as a writer or blogger or researcher, are you sabotaging your potential reach with your readers by not using a list? Has the art of writing been reduced to coming up with the most captivating title (as I have done in this article, by preying on your sense of curiosity) or generating as much content and as fast as you can in order not to lose your reader’s interest and attention? Is everything on the Internet being reduced to clever marketing with less and less regard for substance and intelligent reflection?

All these current studies on Internet activity do seem to show how our brains are now adjusting to be able to survive in this technological Internet induced environment, which in turn is impairing our attention spans and focus. Is it the fault of technology and the Internet or as participants as readers and writers are we are all responsible for this result?

I would say it is up to each individual to determine how they decide to manage going forward into this Internet age. I, myself, have been guilty of list (reading and writing) although I am now coming around. At the beginning of the year I set a goal for myself to get back into substance and attempt to read 50 books by the end of the year. So far, I am on par and feel like I have rediscovered the enjoyment of reading a great book and all the insights that come with it.