Goldfish already have a longer attention span than humans
A microsoft study shows that with the "digital lifestyle" the attention is impaired, but wants to offer optimistic for the advertisement
The brain changes in order to adapt to the environment. This is now banal. It naturally changes when techniques or media are used frequently. Their operation requires new cognitive abilities and, for interaction, new motor skills, such as moving the eyes across screens or using the fingers on a keyboard or touch screen. A study by microsoft has now attempted to examine how attention, the scarce and therefore contested resource of the information society, changes in response to new media with their information representations and interactions. Of course, we don’t want to do anything wrong with the digital transformation, but new technologies have emerged "cognitive performance" for the "digital lifestyle" the report states. In any case, it is clear that there is a competition between user and provider that can develop an enormous dynamic.
Cover of the microsoft study
Microsoft makes it clear that different attention styles are required depending on the occupation. But one is mainly interested in that of the information or screen consumer. One would think that the software company would be interested in how operating systems and programs for different professions (bankers, managers, accountants, journalists, secretaries, doctors, etc.) are used.) and have their media usage optimized. But one seems to focus on the consumer of content and thus also on advertising strategies to capture it. One lives in a world of permanent distractions: "my phone… My kids… My tablet… My friends… There’s always something competing for my attention these days! "
The preparation of the study is handled differently. For those with low attention capacities, there is a version that stays very much on the surface, there are many pictures and graphics, there is little text and, above all, hardly any science. The more scientific version gives a more detailed look at the approach and results. Consequently, for readers with different attention capacities or deficits, not only different forms of advertising, but also different texts, films, games, etc. Must be used. Are produced? We enter into a two- or multi-class society with regard to attention capacities?
Three types of attention are distinguished. Mostly attention is understood as concentration, i.E. The ability to stay on one thing and not get distracted. However, the longer focus is actually only one mode. Another variant is not to let one’s attention wander despite distracting stimuli, which is called selective attention. And a third form of attention is multitasking, i.E. Being able to switch quickly and with high concentration between different tasks. In the study this is "alternating attention" called.
Regardless of the direction of the study, the results are interesting. For the study, 2000 canadian people were surveyed and tested – and to keep them on task, this was done gamified. Another 112 canadians had their attention span recorded and filmed by EEG during different activities with different media.
The hypothesis is that selective attention and alternating attention are the most important for the digital lifestyle, with them love to "the most" from digital media. Whether this can be used to manage the foundation of the digital lifestyle, the development of new digital technical systems, and the writing of complex software, of course, remains an open question. In any case, it is believed that advertising must be designed differently for each attention mode, but also acknowledges that people have had increasing difficulty concentrating, which has affected performance at school or work. For example, 44 percent say they had difficulty focusing on tasks; among boys, the figure is two-thirds. Just as many say they were distracted by unrelated thoughts or daydreaming.
Attention is on the decline, as a microsoft study confirms. Image: luis miguel bugallo sanchez/GFDL
In any case, digital media use continues to increase. According to the study, adults spend an average of more than 11 hours a day using media, compared with 8:48 hours in 2010. For the 16-24 year olds it is already 14 hours, there would not be much left of the day, because they still have to sleep. Evident addictive behavior is found especially among younger people. 77 percent of 18-24 year-olds say they reach for their smartphone first when their attention is not occupied by anything. Among the over-65s, only 10 percent say they do so. 52 percent of young canadians check their smartphones at least every 30 minutes, and 73 percent do so before going to sleep. 79 percent use other media when watching TV, live TV is watched less and less. For more than half of them, however, the addiction also corresponds to the impression that technology can make life worse and that it is important to turn it off sometimes, which hardly anyone does.
76 percent of young canadians say they were only able to keep up with their work by multitasking. The ability to multitask is expected to increase, along with the ability to process information and "saving" the paradox of the economy is that the time spent on interactive content has improved in the memory, while the attention span has continued to shrink, i.E. The window is getting smaller and smaller. Thus a "digital lifestyle" associated with a decrease in attention span, but it made people realize what they wanted or didn’t want more quickly and required less time to process and remember information. Allegedly, the average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds, but now it can be sustained for just 8 seconds before a change must occur.
Canadians who lead digital lifestyles became increasingly unable to engage in non-digital or interactive activities. Non-interactive "environments" where prolonged focused attention is required, even if the ability to focus attention on the environment remains constant "key" to direct. Nevertheless, the attention span is less than that of goldfish, which last nine seconds. "Canadians", according to the report, "lose their interest quickly."
Microsoft is trying to make the most of the shrinking attention span: "if you don’t have to be on, why not move on to the next exciting thing for another dopamine rush??" even using multiple screens, such as a tablet while watching TV, doesn’t have to stump advertisers. The second screen was used to fill in the moments when people had otherwise completely dropped out: "they are generally more engaged and already attuned to immersive experiences." but multiscreeners are less good at filtering out distractions and increasingly hungry for novelty, he said. That’s good for advertising anyway, which can capture attention more easily, it’s just harder to keep it. The higher the media consumption, the greater the use of social networks or multiple screens, and the earlier one has adapted to techniques, the more difficulty there is in focusing attention on a single task.
One of the main recommendations is to cleanse advertising of all unnecessary information: "what consumers see at first glance determines what they will do next." you have to keep people in the race to capture attention and develop strategies of selection, that is, by eliminating all distractions through "clarity" and auberge habituality into the trap: "if they are overwhelmed by the input or lack the motivation to process it, their brain stops absorbing it", according to the authors. However, this strategy, which has been practiced for a long time, accelerates the distraction and the ever shorter attention spans, while the information must become ever simpler, more pointed and thus more appealing, but also more quickly digestible. So attention-oconomically and complexity-reducing must then also increasingly politics be arranged.
