Some thoughts on short attention spans

November 18, 2011, 10:37 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

In yesterday’s mail I received two unusual pieces of correspondence: the first, a handwritten note from a collaboration expert – and a very nice man – that does some industry analysis for us as part of our annual information service; and the second, a letter inviting me to attend some 15-minute Webinars. Both were unusual in that they were written on paper and sent through the mail, not electronically.

That got me to thinking about how our communications has changed from mailed correspondence to fax to email to SMS and other very short modes of communication. While the speed of delivery is certainly improving over time, I believe the primary driver for migrating to faster and shorter modes of communication is television. For example, studies have shown that an increase in television viewing among children shortens their attention span, which I believe translates into other realms, as well. For example, the average sound bite in the 1968 presidential election was 43 seconds, but dropped to 9.8 seconds in the 1988 election and 7.3 seconds by 2000. Moreover, television changes our mindset into believing that every problem on a funny TV show can be solved in 30 minutes, while problems on serious shows require a full 60 minutes (minus 16 minutes of commercials) to resolve.

If our attention spans continue to get shorter, what impact will this have on our ability to communicate meaningfully in the future? Can you say enough about your product in 10 seconds to get people interested in what you’re selling? Can your 140-character Tweet or 160-character text message really convey your actual meaning? More importantly, can you as a business decision maker or voter or parent or consumer gather enough information in just a few seconds to make a well-informed and meaningful decision?

I’m not sure what the solution might be and welcome your thoughts on the topic, particularly in the context of business communications and how we will convey information in the future. I think it’s an important topic to discuss.