We are changing. Over and above the gradual changes caused by evolution, humanity’s very nature has drastically altered over the past 10 years, with significant changes to our overall society. Just recently, I watched a movie with a friend, and I remember him texting constantly throughout. Yet, thinking back over this moment of frustration at my friend’s continuous phone buzzing, I realize I too had been doing the exact same thing, albeit with my phone on silent. On the heels of a report by Microsoft which concluded that the average transient human attention span had fallen from 12 seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in 2013, it’s becoming increasingly evident in modern society that a technological revolution has created a vastly different world, shifting from the in-depth and explanatory to the quick and astonishing.
In the public arena, rapid-fire headlines increasingly dominate news stories. Many students at the University, for example, use theSkimm, a news-oriented email tool that condenses the most important news stories of the day into a short, concise paragraph. While I prefer Google News as my resource, I too find myself briskly reading the headlines while failing to read any of the actual written substance or facts in the article. As news articles become shorter and shorter, an increasing number are not even written by humans anymore. It’s estimated that by 2030, 90 percent of news articles will be written by computers. Remember that article you read about GDP figures in the economy? It was probably written by a computer.
Our continuously shortening attention spans have changed what is considered entertainment and the ways in which we interact with it. Short clips and videos rack up millions of views. Vine, the social network which restricts videos to six seconds, has soared in popularity. Looking for a quick laugh, I often find myself rewatching vines I’ve seen endless times, but, hey, it’s only six seconds. What’s the harm? Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, recently declared that “the true scarce commodity” of the future will be “human attention.”
The social network example extends to Snapchat, too. Snapchat stories offer quick blurbs into our friends’ lives yet fail to yield the same genuine connection that a human conversation does. I could tell you all about the lives of my Snapchat friends. I could tell you the places they’ve traveled and whether they have significant others, but when I really think about it, I don’t know anything about them — not how their day was nor how their family is doing. While the information age has granted us the incredible ability to maintain relationships with people across thousands of miles, I (and I think many others as well) have adapted to this short-attention-spanned world by turning to a system of “fronting” in lieu of real human connections with others. I find myself retweeting Elon Musk to appear intelligent, making a Snapchat story at a party to appear well-liked and sharing a definitely useless Facebook page to appear entertaining.
On Grounds and among college students across the country, the continued shortening of our attention span to effectively less than that of a goldfish has led to a growing sense of isolation within our own personal bubbles. At bus stops, almost every student bides his time on his phone. Even when I eat at a dining hall I find myself refreshing apps or reading rankings instead of engaging fully in the company of a friend. It’s certainly easy to be seduced by the thrilling wonders of endless Wikipedia pages and puppy videos. However, as for potential solutions I truly don’t know. There isn’t necessarily a straightforward path that could easily solve this problem. Nonetheless, the explosion of technology in the past few decades has undoubtedly improved the quality of life for many people. Yet one thing remains absolutely clear: it’s a grave new world out there.
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