I used to be able to sit down and read, uninterrupted, for hours. Same with movies and award shows — I would intently observe, connect with the material and try my hardest to remember why I liked it so I could tell my friends later. As I began to become more and more captivated by social media and technology, this ability waned. I found myself anxious to tweet my thoughts during a live television event, Snapchat the best songs at a concert and take a good selfie for Instagram. I couldn’t give myself the freedom to simply watch, listen and live without the anticipation of critiquing, documenting or interrogating the experiences I had. This isn’t always a bad thing — nearly every course you can take on literature and rhetoric highlights the importance of continued, rigorous engagement with media and experiences. The omnipresence of technology has definitely enabled a stronger culture of critical thinking when it comes to certain events and trends (think: the response to Beyonce’s Lemonade, plethoras of television recaps, thinkpieces, etc.). However, I sometimes miss the days of prolonged and directed focus. I am starting to miss having a real attention span. I’m working on improving my focus, but while it’s still on shaky ground, I thought I’d share some things I’ve noticed about myself and others grappling with this dilemma.
1. Instagram > Facebook.
Facebook is the place you go to announce a life update requiring major verbal explanation. It’s for reaching out to your parents, grandparents and acquaintances. And you definitely never read through each post. Who has time for that? Instagram, however, is home to your closest friends (especially if you have a finsta), and the norms dictate roughly one photo posted per day with a quirky one-sentence caption. It’s easy to reach the end of your feed when you only need to glance at a picture and double-tap it to acknowledge its presence was felt, before sending it away with a flick of your thumb. It just makes more sense this way — you’re less formal, cringeworthy puns are the best captions, and comments are short bursts of love for your friends and their photogenic lives. It’s more authentic. And it takes less time — gotta keep that battery life lasting all day!
2. Snapchat is king.
Texting can be a lot of work. Again, you’re thrust into the rigidity of language and emojis — and those can only express so much. But a picture tells 1,000 words, without the tedium of typing out and then reading all of those words. And a picture with the dog filter superimposed on it says even more.
3. Video chatting and live video are great.
Again, typing and reading are super difficult for those of us suffering from shrinking attention spans. FaceTiming or Skyping a friend saves you the time and is also spontaneous — you don’t have to dedicate time later to read through a feed, a backlog of texts or even open a set of Snapchats. It’s all happening live. Live video is also popular on social media, and from live-streaming sports and political events like the recent gun safety sit-in, it’s a new form of journalism. It’s a form of journalism that you can actually sit through — because it’s going on right then, right from your phone.
4. Binge-watching is the only way of life.
Netflix changed the game with streaming television shows, and even more so when it began releasing its own content that was designed for binge-viewing. We collectively realized that scheduling time and pacing ourselves to get through a story was a waste. Plus, it’s hard to remember every detail packed into a show when it runs the course of an entire year. Just get all of your watching over and done with — so you can Snapchat your friends about it.
5. You sign up for online learning and never learn.
There are so many incredible resources for learning new skills, from computer programming to history, just the tap of a button away. And your résumé, and your intellectual curiosity, could use some of that. But no matter how many Codecademy-esque sites you see or how many Coursera e-mails you get, you cannot ever actually stick to the plan. I mean sure, reviewing JavaScript was cool last week, but you’re busy and this Instagram caption won’t write itself.
6. You think you’re immune to clickbait …
An article with a buzzy headline will pop up online, and you will see right through it, patting yourself on the back for not getting sucked into the trap. Then it happens. “5 Easy Guacamole Recipes That Changed My Life.” Before you realize it, you are eating chips and guac and an hour has passed, you have nine tabs open and you’re seven items into a separate list regarding the middle names of each of the 101 Dalmatians.
7. You wish TL;DR existed for everything.
Paragraphs are daunting. The written word, from textbooks to text messages, from e-books to e-mails, could use a one sentence summary of key points. Teachers always used to say show, don’t tell. But when you can see any image in the entire world from a few keystrokes, it’s better to just tell. Too Long; Didn’t Read is the epitome of casual, everyday shortened attention spans.
8. Listicles are your best friend!
Few things are as ubiquitous on the Internet than the Buzzfeed-style listicle. Sassy headlines, brief bullets, animated GIFs and copywriting that reads like an advertisement all abound in listicles. But they are quick to read and so relatable! They can be effective in communicating a brief point, explaining a concept or providing entertainment value. Listicles are the most salient feature of the modern Internet, and they show no sign of slowing down yet. It’s hard to keep people engaged in an article whose point is to engage with their own lack of engagement, and even harder to do so if that article is long with traditional paragraphs and blocky text boxes.
Madeline Nowicki can be reached at nowickim@umich.edu