Implications of Computing: Part 1: Attention Spans
October 20 2008 / by StuartDobson / In association with Future Blogger.net
Category: Culture Year: 2008 Rating: 4 Hot
Crossposted from Superconcepts
As consumer choice increases, and software teaches us to multi-task, attention spans are getting shorter.
TV appears to be the first casualty of this change of attitude. Simply the advent of more channels started diluting TV audiences in the late 90s. Sheer volume of choice has made people realize that they no longer need to watch what they’re told to watch, that the TV doesn’t have the same power over their lives any more. Even quality programming hasn’t saved it, as the “On Demand” paradigm has put timing in the hands of consumers. 
As well as choice and control over TV content, the rise of DVD, the internet, and video games has further dispersed consumer attention. The new generations are growing up with an abundance of choice over their entertainment. This alone is causing them to demand choice and control in everything they do, something that is soon to have a major impact on our lives.
With all that choice, it’s hard to stay focused on one thing at a time. The TV screen from Back to the Future 2, displaying many channels, may have seemed bizarre, but it is fast becoming a reality. If you don’t believe me, look at how many tabs your browser currently has open. With so much choice, we need to cut down the amount of time spent of each thing we do, so we look at lots of things at once. Long gone are the days waiting for a web page to open, we’ve already opened 3 others and read another one while it was loading.
This concept alone is sure to spread into other areas of our lives. Our impatience and lack of attention span will likely lead to us becoming more and more efficient, not just absorbing more than one thing at a time, but performing more than one action at a time. Yes, even men.
Imagine preparing for your next holiday. You click a button on your touch screen keyboard (think laptop sized Nintendo DS) and your main screen is filled with information. In the top right hand corner, a small panel displays the local time, weather, and currency value of your destination. A Google Earth window takes up a quarter of the screen, you fly around the streets of your destination using a virtual joystick on your touch panel. A ticker tape of the local news rolls along the bottom of the screen. A language coach on the webcam takes up another quarter of your screen, going through regular verbs. Downloads of holiday review TV programmes play in a small window. Virtual hotel walkthroughs play out, allowing you to book one there and then. A small box displays local restaurant photos and reviews. Don’t forget that while all this is on your screen, you’re also listening to music, instant messaging a friend, and eating a microwave pizza.
Choice and control are going to be taken to the extremes, forcing us to integrate multitasking more and more into our everyday lives.
Comment Thread (3 Responses)
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Our impatience and lack of attention span will likely lead to us becoming more and more efficient, not just absorbing more than one thing at a time, but performing more than one action at a time. Yes, even men.
I totally agree. Virtual worlds, BCIs, faster interfaces, semantic search, etc are poised to enable us to more quickly process and retrieve.
Don’t you think this has already been occurring since the beginning of mankind? I happen to believe that our brains are solution machines that on the whole will use anything at their disposal to reduce the amount of Matter, Energy, Space, Time and Info/$ to accomplish a process. Adapted from Buckmister Fuller’s philosophies, Futurist John Smart calls this phenomenon S.T.E.M. Compression.
Posted by: Alvis Brigis October 21, 2008
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While the last image you leave us with (holiday preparations) boggles my mind with its sensory overload, I suppose sooner or later that will be the norm.. I have to admit I have about five or more tabbed windows open in my web browser for the majority of the time.
Posted by: fantasywriter October 21, 2008
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We are increasingly mult-tasking, something I both love and that drives me crazy. But the more and more information I am exposed to, the more I realize making a decision is harder than multi-tasking. You’d think it would be easier, but it’s impossible to tell how important the differences are, and you have so much information on the differences between the choices you make. I think that’s why people often just go with what is popular, they don’t want to try to sort it out for themselves, they just hope there is a reason it is popular.
Posted by: Mielle Sullivan October 21, 2008
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