Our Children’s Attention Span: From Genuine Learning to Sound Bites
Often I am asked, “Why do you think our children seem so detached from the important social, environmental, economic, and other issues of our day? They will be affected more than we will by the decisions we make now, so why do they not seem to care or even to know anything about these subjects?”
In the old days—not the Jurassic Period, but during my lifetime—we used to read books: Les Miserables, Moby Dick, Brave New World, The Grapes of Wrath, 1984, A Passage to India, Animal Farm, The Golden Bowl.
These were books of mind-bending depth, which explored social issues, the human psyche, relationships, sacrifice, human frailty, sorrow, and triumph of the soul over pain and difficulty. In them, we discovered ourselves and our fellow beings. They were adventures, with discoveries at every turn. They were discussions between ourselves and great minds.
And then we turned books into movies. Much of the plot was retained, some of the issues were kept but abbreviated, and most of the subtleties were lost.
And then these great books—and sometimes great movies—were abbreviated into comic books and graphic novels. The content got shorter and shorter.
Then came video games, with some plot, much action, and little else.
Then talk radio, with explosions of drama and anger, but nothing that informed or uplifted the soul.
Then YouTube, with plots limited to cats playing with a variety of objects, and babies laughing hysterically for our amusement.
The Effects of a Shorter Attention Span
My point is that the development of many thoughts, perspectives, and levels of intellectual and emotional maturity takes time and consistent focus. Those important pillars of our being can only be shallow and weak if our dedication is to brief and entertaining stimulation.
Last year it was discovered that half of Internet users switched the page they were viewing if they didn’t find something that interested them within three seconds.
This year—one year later—the decision-making time has decreased to 1.5 seconds. One could assume that we’re simply getting more efficient at identifying what would educate and uplift us but considering our ever-increasing need for artificially-induced excitement, that would be unlikely.
Our attention span—and that of our children—is just getting shorter and shorter, so short, in fact, that truly grasping complicated and important personal, social, political, and environmental issues is becoming impossible.
Examples of a Shorter Attention Span
Consider the answers I recently heard to just a few important personal and political subjects that have a daily impact on all of us:
Q: What do you believe about global warming and what we should do about it?
A: “Oh, I don’t know. My friends/political party/media say XX, so I guess that must be true.” (In other words, “I have done no meaningful research into the subject at all.”)
Q: How do you go about finding and maintaining a great relationship?
A: “Facebook. Tinder. Who cares?” (Translation: “I have no idea.”)
Q: What do you believe the country should do about immigration?
A: “I think what they’re doing—”they” being whatever party or politician is the current object of derision in the news—is terrible.” (No solution is offered, no evidence of thought perceived.)
The more time we allow our children to spend on electronic screens, the shorter their attention span becomes, and—unavoidably—the shallower their opinions become.
They decide who they’ll like on social media in seconds, they form opinions about fashion in moments, and they have to decide whether to shoot a distant creature on the screen—friend or alien—in a fraction of a second. It all fosters superficial and snappy decisions, rarely a formula for a fulfilling life.
This phenomenon has existed only in the past couple of decades, and its growth is accelerating. What are you doing to encourage your children to learn to make informed, carefully-weighed, and wise decisions?
If nothing, then they will actively be taught how to make decisions in a distinctly different and disadvantageous way. The world—with all its distractions and unattributed sound bites—will parent your children for you.
Summary
Making wise decisions in our lives requires preparation, thought, time, and experience.
Increasingly, the world around us is filled with screen shots, headlines, repetitious and meaningless lyrics, and opinions without sound foundation—all demanding our attention and dividing it up into very spans.
If we parents don’t take an active part in helping our children to thoughtfully consider what is important in their lives and in the world, the world with its 1.5 second sound-bite approach will raise our children for us.
