Has Our Attention Span and Ability To Be Noticed Been Obliterated By Extreme Social Streams?
In The Old Days of Social Media
In the beginning…when blogging and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook first became a part of our lives, it felt like this:
And Then We Caught The Need For Speed
I think it’s obvious to everyone that it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with everything these days. We are able to see it all streaming past us, and we recognize that much of it is forgotten within a second because something else is flying past us, looking to catch our attention. It now feels like this:
Personally, I’m finding this difficult for two reasons:
- I can’t stay focused as well as I used to be able to do.
- I can’t get YOUR attention as well as I used to be able to do.
Now, that second point will come off as just another marketing person whining about being unable to capture attention – and that’s ok – because that’s what it is! However, I strongly suspect that I’m not alone in this. I believe it’s becoming more and more difficult – verging on impossible – to capture the attention of the audience that anyone in business might be trying to reach.
Your Turn To Speak
What do you think? I’m keeping this post short because I want to hear your thoughts. I’d love to see this post become a real conversation, rather than me spouting off and you simply absorbing it – or more likely – forgetting you read this 2 seconds from now. Of course, that in itself would speak volumes, right? LOL. Anyway, I open this up to you – and your ideas – on ways to deal with the ever-increasing stream that we all find ourselves in. Your turn…comment below.
Tags: Facebook, Marketing, social media, social networks, Twitter
| Has Our Attention Span and Ability To Be Noticed Been Obliterated By Extreme Social Streams? | |
 | In The Old Days of Social Media In the beginning…when blogging and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook first became a part of our lives, it felt like this: And Then We Caught The Need For Speed I think it’s obvious to everyone that it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with everything [...] |
17 Responses to “Has Our Attention Span and Ability To Be Noticed Been Obliterated By Extreme Social Streams?”
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Did you say something, sorry, can’t pay attention! Nice post, though.
Robert Scoble recently posted..Why does searching for Twitter lists suck so much?
LOL, at least you noticed long enough to comment. That’s something!
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Donna,
I have been thinking about this recently as there have been a couple of studies released that suggest the web is actually re-wiring our brains.
Multi-tasking actually hurts our ability to focus and our online activities more often than not require us to multi-task.
I’ve definitely noticed this in myself and am going to start taking steps to try and reverse this trend a bit. Eliminating distractions, being disciplined about when to use social media (twitter) etc.
We’ll see how it goes.
Would love to hear later what you’ve determined…if eliminating distractions, etc makes a difference for you personally or not.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
I guess it’s kind of ironic that I skipped through most of your article, only reading about 5 sentences or so
I think so…people are constantly checking their Blackberry, logging into to Twitter or Facebook every 15 minutes or so, skimming articles and news and generally forgetting the few things they actually do learn because, hell, they can just go look it up again if they need it.
Try this some time: Ask someone who grew up with the Internet the capital of a few states (maybe even their own), who were some of the founding fathers or who invented penicillin. They don’t know some of the most basic things that people our age learned and were expected to know with out having to look it up.
So, yes, attention spans are getting shorter and as a result, people are getting dumber. It’s scary to think of what the world will be like in 20 years.
I have a feeling there will eventually be a time when things go full circle, and the future will look more like the past, as we learn from mistakes. But it will be fun, 20 years from now, to look back and see what’s happened.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
good point. it’s not like people are stupid. but it is frightening that we fall into these traps
While this is a bit off topic, I don’t know that looking up info makes us a dumber society. As you said we constantly have access to these information sources so it’s not like we can’t get the info almost instantly.
Plus, the net allows for incredible collaboration which furthers our knowledge as a society by leaps & bounds.
Ben Cook recently posted..Facebook Suggests You Like….
I turned my back on social media quite a while ago, it seemed to me that many (not all) just got caught up in the hype and ego stroking aspects of it all, I found it quite sad that an apparent desire to be popular with a friends list as long as a paper round was more important than the actual product/website one was promoting. I’m not surprised that you have written this post and that social media has not turned out to be the promised land, I’m only surprised it took you so long.
I’m definitely not turning my back on social media, but I do think I need to do more filtering and be more selective.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
You’re right, you are not alone.
Some loose thoughts on this.
1. it’s our own fault: we design websites to draw attention away from the main focus
2. it’s our own fault: we design our copy to be skippable
3. “It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.” – Clay Shirky
solutions I’m using: follow more focused and follow less people, read slower and force yourself not to skip
Part of me agrees with all three thoughts, and part of me doesn’t, but I can’t describe why just yet. I’ll have to think about it for a bit.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
I suspect you are both right and wrong, the best sites do get noticed and remembered but there is a huge amount of inconsequential chatter out there that can distract us…
I keep returning to this site because I remember the name long after I have wiped it from bookmarks when I formatted so there is still something there, you find you retain people easily due to there being so much noise and people cannot be bothered but it is harder and harder to capture new ears…
Sometimes I wonder if the barrier to the internet has been set too low :p
Phil recently posted..Best prices on beads for jewellery making
Hey, Phil, I’m glad you do remember the name here and keep returning. That might be a good lesson – have a memorable name. And yes, I’m usually both right and wrong.
Twitter: DonnaFontenot
Donna, I’m too new at the blogging game to see the evolution. From what I see though, audiences are splitting along different lines. Blogging seems to attract people who love to learn, read and enjoy deeper conversations. The ADD party crowd will opt for Twitter and the “Look at me!” folks love their Facebook.
What’s you thoughts on that?
I totally agree that grabbing attention is tougher than ever these days. From what I’ve heard, online marketing for infopreneurs has become brutally competitive.
Joe
Dr Joe recently posted..Expressive Personality: Wired for Drama – Drama Manipulation
That might be over-simplifying things, Dr. Joe, but I see your point, definitely. So let’s go with that for a moment. Perhaps different strategies need to employed for each. Maybe the Twitter crowd needs one type of message (Extreme Titles might work), Facebook users need another type of message (Focusing on THEM), and bloggers need yet another type of message (HOW TO?). That just might help, actually. Interesting…
Twitter: DonnaFontenot