The average political sound bite is now less than eight seconds as attention spans dwindle in our world of multitasking.
This trend is not new, nor is it specific to television, with research showing that, in 1916, “the average political quotation in a newspaper story had fallen to about half the length of the average quotation in 1892.” What is new is that this modern clipped sound bite dovetails perfectly with a culture growing less and less able to pay attention.
According to a July 2010 article (PDF) published in the medical journal Pediatrics, increased exposure to television and video games caused noticeable decreases in attention spans in schoolchildren. And there’s evidence to show that the multitasking aptitude of which many Americans are so proud actually does damage to important alertness capabilities. In England, one study said the average attention span amongst university students was 10 minutes. In other words, in the lightning-fast, multimedia society we’ve become, where you’re only as good as your last YouTube video/tweet/Tumblr update, the attention span may be an endangered species—and we've got the barely there sound bites to prove it.
A message to the presidential candidates of 2040: More "I Like Ike!" Less "Four score and seven years ago..."
photo (cc) via Flickr user saimen