Somehow somewhere a decade ago the word got out that short attention span was “in”. It was the Change, the new-world trend that everybody had to embrace to stay relevant. Around that time came an advertisement that ascribed impatience to great discoveries. It stoked the highly flawed prevailing premise that attention deficiency was the key to success. That was exactly what the Pressure Group needed.
Cut to the present, the Short Attention Span Movement has only become stronger. It is “cool”, highbrow and relatable. It’s the Zeitgeist. Fragmented attention is a sign of intelligence, a trait of genius, a core attribute of extroversion—which in turn is the hallmark of personality development—and a necessity for survival.
With the rise of the Chinese invention TikTok, attention spans have got shorter. What was acceptable to last for an hour or a few minutes, is now truncated to a few seconds. Intellectuals have touted TikTok as the theory of everything: an answer to all questions; a one-size-fits-all solution to our intellectual needs. There are absurd comparisons drawn between YouTube and TikTok when they are as diverse as chalk and cheese. As per the prophecies of social trend influencers, TikTok will replace Netflix, Youtube, cinema, books, e-books, original music, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, video-games, Amazon; and perhaps supermarkets and furniture in future. Long attention spans are passé.
Such utter codswallop. The sophistry goes on, built on circular arguments and distortion of facts, much like the Newspeak in George Orwell’s 1984.
The ability to focus is one of the most important skills a person can have. Focus is a key aspect in nearly all areas of life. To learn new skills you need focus. A surgeon cannot perform a six-hour surgery with fragmented attention. Moreover, the notion that impatience leads to discoveries is a blatant fallacy. Impatience doesn’t invent vaccinations; there’s a thoroughly rigorous process behind it, which wouldn’t be possible with haste. Inspiration and epiphanies may seem to be sudden but even they won’t appear with impatience. Short attention span is not a virtue. It’s not “hip” or “cool” as purported by Trend Influencers and Pressure Groups.
The hypocrisy—and irony—of this movement is that despite the tall claims made about saving time by shortening people’s attention spans, people are in fact spending more time on social media. It’s fragmented attention, in short spells of time, but the cumulative time is way more than what it was in the early years of social media. Earlier most people would check social media once a day or week but now it’s nearly continuous; the bell icons (notifications) have increased the time consumption. The feature of “likes” has added to the usage with people coming back obsessively, even after minutes of posting, to check the number of likes. How does that save time?
In the same manner, those who gloat about not watching “long” movies spend way more time binge-watching, in their pyjamas without eating or going to toilet, single-story TV shows which are cleverly divided into several episodes, but the time spent on a binge-watching session is way more than that on a movie, even long ones like The Godfather, The Irishman or Lagaan. Yet again, the notion of saving time is misguided. The time expended on social networks or binge-watching television series is way more than The Irishman’s duration.
Cut to the present, the Short Attention Span Movement has only become stronger. It is “cool”, highbrow and relatable. It’s the Zeitgeist. Fragmented attention is a sign of intelligence, a trait of genius, a core attribute of extroversion—which in turn is the hallmark of personality development—and a necessity for survival.
With the rise of the Chinese invention TikTok, attention spans have got shorter. What was acceptable to last for an hour or a few minutes, is now truncated to a few seconds. Intellectuals have touted TikTok as the theory of everything: an answer to all questions; a one-size-fits-all solution to our intellectual needs. There are absurd comparisons drawn between YouTube and TikTok when they are as diverse as chalk and cheese. As per the prophecies of social trend influencers, TikTok will replace Netflix, Youtube, cinema, books, e-books, original music, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, video-games, Amazon; and perhaps supermarkets and furniture in future. Long attention spans are passé.
Such utter codswallop. The sophistry goes on, built on circular arguments and distortion of facts, much like the Newspeak in George Orwell’s 1984.
The ability to focus is one of the most important skills a person can have. Focus is a key aspect in nearly all areas of life. To learn new skills you need focus. A surgeon cannot perform a six-hour surgery with fragmented attention. Moreover, the notion that impatience leads to discoveries is a blatant fallacy. Impatience doesn’t invent vaccinations; there’s a thoroughly rigorous process behind it, which wouldn’t be possible with haste. Inspiration and epiphanies may seem to be sudden but even they won’t appear with impatience. Short attention span is not a virtue. It’s not “hip” or “cool” as purported by Trend Influencers and Pressure Groups.
The hypocrisy—and irony—of this movement is that despite the tall claims made about saving time by shortening people’s attention spans, people are in fact spending more time on social media. It’s fragmented attention, in short spells of time, but the cumulative time is way more than what it was in the early years of social media. Earlier most people would check social media once a day or week but now it’s nearly continuous; the bell icons (notifications) have increased the time consumption. The feature of “likes” has added to the usage with people coming back obsessively, even after minutes of posting, to check the number of likes. How does that save time?
In the same manner, those who gloat about not watching “long” movies spend way more time binge-watching, in their pyjamas without eating or going to toilet, single-story TV shows which are cleverly divided into several episodes, but the time spent on a binge-watching session is way more than that on a movie, even long ones like The Godfather, The Irishman or Lagaan. Yet again, the notion of saving time is misguided. The time expended on social networks or binge-watching television series is way more than The Irishman’s duration.
