the hidden truth behind our declining attention spans

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today i tried to answer the question of what's going on with our attention spans, and is it really getting shorter? how come so many people are picking up reading as a hobby then? hope you enjoy :)

contents:
00:00 intro
1:17 the attention span myth
10:05 why do we *feel* like our attention spans are declining?
13:56 the other explanation

sources:
A conceptual and methodological critique of internet addiction research: Towards a model of compensatory internet use, Daniel Kardefelt-Winther, (2014)
Attention spans, Microsoft Canada (2015)
Book sales statistics, WORDSRATED (2023)
Busting the attention span myth, BBC (2017)
Do we have your attention? The policy institute (2022)
Drivers and Consequences of Short-Form Video (SFV) Addiction amongst Adolescents in China: Stress-Coping Theory Perspective, Mu et al. (2022)
Exploring Stress and Problematic Use of Short-Form Video Applications among Middle-Aged Chinese Adults: The Mediating Roles of Duration of Use and Flow Experience, Huang et al., 2021
Our attention span is now less than that of a goldfish, Microsoft study finds, INDEPENDENT (2015)
Persuasive Technology, Center for Humane Technology (2021)
Research on Adolescents Regarding the Indirect Effect of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress between TikTok Use Disorder and Memory Loss, Peng Sha & Xiaoyu Dong (2021)
Science Shows: Humans Have Massive Capacity For Sustained Attention, And Storytelling Unlocks It, FORBES (2023)
The role of attention in learning in the digital age, Lodge & Harrison (2019)
The 'shortening' of movies, Scott Myers (2014)
You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish, TIME magazine (2015)

🌼 s o c i a l m e d i a
• twitter: @thebookleo
• instagram: @thebookleo

🌺 a b o u t m e
Hi! My name is Leonie and I am a 25 year old girl from the Netherlands who loves talking about books! From YA to non-fiction to classics, I read it all (although fantasy will always be my fave).

🌹 m u s i c
Music, art, and video by Jokabi

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[Arawn]

To fully experience this video as Leonie intended, watch it split screen alongside a Subway Surfers stream, a piano tutorial, and the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru

[birdrun]

The reframing from "People's attention is getting worse" to "companies aggressively fighting for our attention by any means necessary" was something I've never thought about and it feels incredibly important.

[evrevr]

“are we easier to distract or is the world around us getting more distracting” really put things into perspective
like wow i’ve actually never thought of that in that way

[dursty]

"sometimes self-care really is just doing the thing that you're scared of."
i like that a lot.

[genmediainc.]

Attention span declining is less about attention getting shorter and more about what we have to pay attention to getting shorter. I love long movies and huge video essays and I find it easy to dive deep into them and my favorite topics without stopping for anything else the whole time. The only times I find myself thinking my attention is shorter is when I’m watching the extremely saturating short form content that won’t stop clouding all my feeds! I wish all my YouTube recommendations were 1hr+ essays/masterful breakdowns/crazy long-term game challenges with wild editing, but just one video that’s even slightly radical or memetic and my entire feed is switched to that in an effort to get me going on some unhinged tangent chain.

[gundamzerostrike]

Scientific study: "The 40h+ work week makes people tired and engage less in other activities"
Journalist talking about study: "STUDY FINDS WE'RE ALL GETTING LAZIER THAN A SLUG!"

[Katiedora]

What I've realized over the past few years is that my attention span is probably the same, but directing that attention at what I want is much harder. As a kid, I had no control in my life, but I could pick up a book, read it cover to cover, and as soon as I finished I would go back and start it again. And I would do this for hours because there wasn't anything else for me to do. Now as an adult who has to spend so many hours a day working, I'm trying to squeeze so much more into less free time. So I could spend an hour absorbed in a book, or I could spend an hour scrolling through IG or TikTok. The attention span is the same, I'm just usually too tired to decide what to do with it, and perception is everything.

[soymikleo]

personally ive noticed a trend of having shorter attention spans being a catalyst for the speed reading or book binges that will then inevitably result in a burnout/reading slump. It’s so interesting bcos rather than remedying a short attention span with more intentional(?) reading, being mindful of pace, identifying writing styles that engages them — it just becomes this cycle of consuming books for the sake of consuming them

[keithives]

Your theory about a lot of people reading so much is indeed SO TRUE. And it can literally consume your day as much as TikTok or internet in general. But people don't see as problematic as internet overuse, because "reading is healthy". Like, in my teenage years (i'm 23 now) i was reading for about 10 hours a day. I was suffering from social anxiety and also had undiagnosed adhd (so the adhd explains a little bit about the time spent reading, as it was one of my hyperfixations, but still) i only went to school and cleaned my whole house. Then i would just read all day long and man, that wasn't healthy AT ALL. When i was about 16 i started realizing that i USED IT as some kind of escapism, but i was still so down in my social anxiety that... well, i didn't care that much because what else would i do, right? I didn't have money to afford therapy and my parents didn't believe in Therapy (or mental health problems) so i just continued. I read super long 800 hundred pages books in a single DAY. I went to the city library like 4 times a week. And no one actually thought that was a problem because i was reading and reading is good and i was intelligent and all that stuff. I could go 13 hours reading without eating or going to the bathroom (due to adhd actually) and no one would bat an eye. I mean, i spent a really good time reading, and had so much fun and it is still a safe place for me, and in fact it helped me intelectually. But god i was MISERABLE. Its so crazy looking back now because jesus i was so clearly in need of help.

[finlandtrip]

This was such a good video & the change in perspective from "our attention spans suck" to "our attention is being pulled in a million different ways" feels so important. Thank you for making good shit!

[julius]

As someone with ADHD who struggled mightily as a kid and a teenager, I feel this modern world really leveled the playing field for me. How? Well, even 20 years ago my brain had too many things to do, and there were always too many distractions, so I never even had the time to get into all the internet craze. Never had social media besides You Tube, and I always used my smartphone for productive purposes only.

I never dreamed that I will one day be more productive than other people, even though I am still highly distracted, it's just that now everyone is super distracted, and most have no idea how to cope with it.

[JoshBearheart]

If you can sit there for 45 minutes or an hour and scroll aimlessly through short form content, the issue isn't your attention span being too short. It's easy to blame short form content for all our problems, but the truth is that short form platforms feed you content non-stop that is catered to you whereas longer form video platforms (i.e. YouTube) force you to choose from dozens/hundreds/thousands of videos. The actual issue is choice overload. When we have seemingly endless choices (like scrolling through Netflix to find something to watch) we tend to have trouble picking something because we aren't sure what we will be getting or missing out on. TikTok/YouTube Shorts/IG Reels feed you videos instead of having you select what to watch and then you decide if what they give you is entertaining/educational enough to watch before moving on.

Cutting down on the number of choices makes things a bit easier (at least it did for me). I spent a lot of time cutting back on who I was following on platforms like IG/Twitter for instance as well as removing a ton of subscriptions from YouTube and cutting out Facebook almost entirely for personal use. The result has been that I feel overall better about what I do online and I don't feel that I am overwhelmed as often online. I still struggle when it comes to YouTube and other long form platforms to find things that look interesting to watch, but I have started working on that by reading when I feel like there is too many choices of videos.

[chlorox]

Wow, its not that our attentions spans are getting shorter its just that we're getting *better and quicker* at filtering out content that we don't care about. Honestly, this makes so much more sense than the claim that our attention spans are just worse. Last year I started getting back into reading and D&D. There is a no way a dwindling attention span would make sense when I can sit for 5 hours straight watching a video of people playing dungeons and dragons or read half a novel in one sitting.

This is why verifying your sources is so important.

[katelynasmus]

THIS IS SO FASCINATING!! I'm an occupational therapist in a school district, and by FAR the number one questions teachers ask me is how to keep kids paying attention. This video totally reframes what I've been seeing in the classroom! Kids go to screens for dopamine (which we all need to do higher-thinking/executive functioning tasks) NOT because they're addicted or can't find dopamine anywhere else, but because it's the easiest place to get it. When they're in school and not in front of a screen, it takes a lot more work for their brains to build the dopamine it takes to focus on their schoolwork.

[SheriMaple]

I’m currently reading a book titled, “Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again” by Johann Hari. I think the phrasing of the title speaks more to how our attention is focused elsewhere than having short attention spans and the idea of how people aren’t living in the moment.

[Hyacinthe.]

I deleted Instagram and TikTok a bit ago because it became an addiction, I no longer understand what’s “trending” but don’t feel suffocating from the need to watch TikTok when I’m bored. I downloaded TikTok a couple weeks ago and spent 30 mins on it before deleting it again. There was so much negativity and hate on my feed that it felt awful to use. (It was mainly people hating on white girls for lip syncing with an attitude or something) the newest problem is YouTube shorts! Would love an option to get rid of them but I don’t think there is

[linusoppenheimer]

I actually read a pretty interesting book on this called Focus by Johann Hari. In the book Hari cites multiple ways in which we've designed a world that ultimately makes us significantly less mentally healthy, including talking a lot about social media, but one chapter which stood out to me was one where he discussed education. Hari pointed out that many kids today live in neighborhoods and go to schools which, in attempts to keep kids safe, inadvertently keep them isolated and unengaged. However, when those same kids were allowed to explore, do things perceived as "dangerous, " or even just engage in hobbies on their own terms without the attached element of it being "work, " they were incredibly apt and took to it easily. I think that a big part of the problem is that we've designed a world where we're both chronically overworked and chronically understimulated because hobbies have either become oversanitized, over commercialized, or just way too expensive, though when presented an option to engage, I think that the new generation is just as capable as any.

[cecilie...]

"We're actually using social media to distract us from the stressful things we need to get done."
Thank you for the PSA, Leonie^^ I used this video as an incentive to write several emails I should've sent days ago!

[JuanPablodelaTorre]

Gabriel García Márquez wrote a short list titled "Warning from a Writer". Item 4 says: "Es más fácil atrapar un conejo que un lector". This means "It's easier to catch a rabbit than a reader". He already knew attention was a scarce thing last century.

20 years ago, a long movie or documentary was 2 hours long, and 10 years ago, Vines were 7 seconds long. Today we have 4-hour movies, 6-hour documentaries, and 10-minute TikTok videos. Attention hasn't dwindled it just changed.

[mysticmongrel]

As a gamer, being able to sit down and play a game for a while has been helpful. Honestly my attention span comes from my mood. If I'm playing a game, I'm wanting a long form of intake. If I'm on Tik Tok, I want short form. If I'm reading a manga, I'm in a mood to focus. Watching a show means I wanna do two things at once.