Attention Please
Do I have your attention? Good!
The internet has reduced the attention span of most people. The younger generations have come to expect information in seconds, anything else takes too long. The combination of mobile phones and internet has allowed this truth to occur. It's not a bad thing sometimes, learning is much more accessible then just years before present day. In the land before time, you would have to remember to look up information at a library or such (We all that never happened!).
With the internet, headlines rule. Just like newspapers and magazines, the title of articles make the difference between someone reading it or not. But with the internet is filled headlines. They are not just on news sites, but Twitter and Facebook too. So making your content seem interesting with a limited number of words is more important than ever. And it's been said that content on Facebook and Twitter die in an average of about five minutes, so it even harder to get viewers.Why can one (Like this blog) defeat the short term life cycle of online content?!
The internet has changed the way entertaining people is done. No longer is it the major players in Hollywood that do the entertaining. It's easier than ever for anyone to attempt to break out to the entertainment industry. With content on the interwebs, it's a battle to attract consumers with whatever it takes. Just look at what people do on YouTube. And the fab thing lately have been memes. The best way I can describe memes is: comics of the internet. Every time I see a meme, I think of Family Circus. It may be the only comic I read in the newspaper as a toddler because it was so short and simple. As with my toddlers, I had an attention span that lasted two seconds. As a result, I find that all the memes on the internet can easily attract anyone, even toddlers. Memes are making us all toddlers again!
With videos that queue up, memes, funny pictures, and content at our fingertips, society as a whole has lost it's attention span. Patience is much harder to come by. It even has affected the way students are taught. Now, students have to entertained lessons with iPads and laptops because the hard way of books is too dull. I'm not saying it is a terrible thing, but it seems students are not as patient anymore (I'm getting old!).
P.S. If you got this far, congrats! You are not one of those inpatient people I was talking about!