Attention Span

[JoelR]

Quote

Gloria Mark, a professor of information science at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Attention Span,” started researching the way people used computers in 2004. The average time people spent on a single screen was 2.5 minutes. “I was astounded,” she told me. “That was so much worse than I’d thought it would be.” But that was just the beginning. By 2012, Mark and her colleagues found the average time on a single task was 75 seconds. Now it’s down to about 47.

This is an acid bath for human cognition. Multitasking is mostly a myth. We can focus on one thing at a time. “It’s like we have an internal whiteboard in our minds,” Mark said. “If I’m working on one task, I have all the info I need on that mental whiteboard. Then I switch to email. I have to mentally erase that whiteboard and write all the information I need to do email. And just like on a real whiteboard, there can be a residue in our minds. We may still be thinking of something from three tasks ago.”

Acid bath for human thinking. Multitasking is mostly a myth.  Who has 47 seconds to actually spend time on a single task??  

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/28/opinion/artificial-intelligence-thinking-minds-concentration.html?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

[Shortie]

My attention span has been known to be terrible. I always set myself with tasks to complete throughout the day and I tell myself that I will do them one by one and get them completed, it never happens. 

I end up focusing on one task and then sometimes, without even realizing it I end up on another page doing something else because it popped into my head. It leaves me feeling confused, flustered and frustrated sometimes but it is like I am programed to do it without realizing it. 

[JoelR]

I actually enjoy the creative diversions of allowing my mind to wander and draw connections.  

My real world job demands that I stay focused in meetings, when much of my day is not my own, so I enjoy the "freeform time" to let my mind wander.  

[Nomad]

When I started my career, I believed multi tasking was cool. I thought multi tasking made your more efficient, more creative, and more productive. Due to this belief, I used to work on multiple jobs at a time. Later, I started reading research papers that said multi tasking will actually reduce your attention span and your output will not be great. These days, I focus on one task at a time.

[Kane]

If the article or a post I am reading, or a video I am watching does not hold me for 10 seconds, I will immediately exit the page. However, if I am reading or watching interesting content, well formatted content, content with information, I will read the entire content even when I have to sopend 10 minutes, or watch video even when I have to spend hours. Attention span on the internet depends on content quality.

[Maria]

Attention span of internet users is very small. That's why tiktok started growing and that's why Facebook, Instagram and Youtube had to start short video feature. You need to grab attention of your audience in 5-10 seconds, if you cannot do that your audience will leave and you will have a high bounce rate.