![]() We are usually less productive at both things when we try to do them simultaneously.Įach type of attention applies to different circumstances, and the span of each varies from person to person. We struggle to keep divided attention up for long. This means we can take notes during a meeting or write an email while cooking lunch. We’re able to split our attention between two tasks at once. This is the type of focus that takes place during multitasking. Selective attention is also how we can work at home while our cat/kids run around us. This is how we’re able to focus on a conversation with a friend at a busy train station. ![]() This is our ability to focus on one thing in particular while there are many other distractions around us. Sustained attention is the type of attention you might have in business meetings, exams, or while watching a movie (or a few). This is our ability to focus on one activity for a long period of time. Scientists discovered that attention isn’t a single process, but a group of smaller processes used in different contexts. As it turns out, attention span is more complex than it first seems. However, we’re all aware that we don’t have an unlimited bingeing capacity, hence why Netflix asks, ‘are you still watching?’ after a significant number of episodes have auto-played. In fact, 361,000 people watched the entire second series of popular drama Stranger Things on the day it was released. The majority preferred bingeing their way through a series to taking it one episode at a time. A Netflix survey found 61 percent of users regularly watched between two and six episodes in one sitting. Watching an entire series in one sitting, chaining podcast episodes, and powering through a whole book in one afternoon are all everyday habits – especially during a pandemic. ![]() Scientists and psychologists are still puzzled by how the statistic came into circulation.Īside from dubious sources, the goldfish attention span myth has one significant counter-argument to contend with: bingeing. As reported by the BBC, this source wasn’t linked to any recognizable studies or research pieces. The claim that humans have an eight-second attention span and goldfish a nine-second span wasn’t based on Microsoft’s research but cited from another source. However, it wasn’t long before the statement started to look fishy. When Microsoft’s Consumer Insights team reported that the average human’s attention span lags one second behind a goldfish’s, they hit the headlines worldwide. If you haven’t heard the “humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish” idiom from a well-reputed news outlet, you’ve probably heard it from a marketing or sales colleague. Let’s take a look at why the eight-second myth doesn’t measure up, how to overcome one of the most common marketing problems, and why readers are actually not at all like goldfish. Luckily, there’s more to measuring attention span than it first seems. This leaves behind in-depth, immersive experiences to pursue quick wins. The problem is that relying only on snackable content tends to sacrifice content quality. This has recently fuelled the snackable content trend, where marketers are creating short, scannable bites of content with clickbaity titles to keep reading time minimal. Alongside the existing pressures to create high-quality content on a tight budget, marketers must work out how to condense their core messaging down into eight-second bites to fit goldfish-level spans. This confusion causes a lot of marketing problems. Meanwhile, the BBC argues it’s difficult to put a figure on attention span at all since focus varies so much depending on the task and context. Forbes reported that attention depends on generation, with Millennials able to focus for a whole four seconds longer than Gen Z. ![]() The New York Times, Time magazine, and USA today have all reported that a human’s attention span is only eight seconds long – one second shorter than the attention span of your average goldfish. There’s a lot of conflicting information out there about attention spans.
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