I take the liberty of
defining a new term in this post. Though ‘attention span’ is a recognized
concept in our vocabulary pointing towards the kind, quality and duration of attention
rendered by the receiver, ‘digital attention span’ is born out of the new age
world of digital life. This form of attention is absolutely short, distracted
and impatient- to define it in the shortest possible way. It happens to all of
us. No matter how well you defend your stand, we all are guilty of being
impatient while accessing information in today’s world of connectivity. We have
all the necessary means to understand a concept from any end of the globe or
learn about any phenomenon of any field at any time, but is it everything or
are we lacking something? I cannot take your opinions for granted, but my digitally
active, virtually available, constantly connected, and ever-inquisitive mind
does not believe in not knowing it all but seems to understand only a tiny bit
of everything.
This is the result of
having all types of accessible information within arms’ reach (or rather in
this case finger’s reach) but not able to process it with patience right till
the end. Let me explain this through couple of cases and see if it rings true
for you.
1.
Case 1: You are reading or working on something.
You come across an unknown concept – you google it to find out what it means.
One link on the article takes you to another and another and another. Slowly and
steadily you have access to numerous articles but manage to understand only a
tiny bit. You either quit reading because it seems to make no sense at all or
is irrelevant to your original search. Or as it happens in most situations- you
are restless or distracted within one-third length of the article.
2.
Case 2- You are enjoying your daily dose of
social media intake. While browsing through photos, posts and updates- you come
across catchy articles with absolutely catchy headlines. Some of it seem
totally related to your current situation in life. You read a bit, only to
extract little sense or end up clicking other interesting links within it.
3.
Case 3- You subscribe to e-newspapers,
newsletters and influential blogs (because you are not just all play and no
work on social media!), you find an article relevant with an aim to seek some
knowledge, learn new tips and tricks of the trade or to sound well informed in
your social circle. Again you grasp a little, only to find yourself attracted
to some other hidden concept or embedded article.
4.
Case 4- You are hanging out with your group of friends.
You end up disagreeing over something and use google as your ultimate decision-maker.
Each one of you open a website, read an article, get some information, and
resolve the conflict, only to prove the point and not understand it completely.
The underlying base
of each of these scenarios is the same. Thanks to easily accessible internet on
our smartphones, we can find out anything and everything with ease. But call it
an ill side-effect or distracted attention span, I seem to know it all but
understand just a little. It is easy to jump from one source of information to
another and enjoy unlimited access to so many resources. Yet it is also easy to
not understand it the way it is meant to be.
There is no harm in the unlimited
access, the harm lies in not using it well. Also, there is no need to know it
all, but rather it is important to stay focused and gain adequate knowledge. I
find it similar to touching the surface of the soil and deciding what lies
beneath instead of digging it to get the correct picture. As I pen this thought
from my mind, I realize it is essential to make conscious efforts and stay
focused to understand it better. Access to unlimited knowledge imparts a rather
snobbish sense of knowing-it-all, only to realize the knowledge is surface
deep. There is no depth to the knowledge base unless we invest adequate time to
gather it through reliable sources.
I am tempted to infer digital attention span
is often about quantity and not quality. This pushes me to remember and avoid short
attention spans as much as possible. It is not necessary to know everything. We
cannot possibly be experts on every subject or gain degrees to every possible
fields. But at the same time, we cannot justify the short attention span and
not make any efforts to learn, understand or concentrate over matters that
truly matter. If we allow digitally influenced attention span to cast its spell
over other faculties of life, we will lose the essential ingredient of
concentration. I do not intend to demotivate the influence of virtual access,
but at the same time, I want to ensure adequate focus whenever and wherever it
matters. I sense an ‘old-school-ish’ attitude in my thinking, but then not
everything in the new school is perfectly correct!
The key is to use
digital access to our advantage. It is perfectly understandable to not know it
all but it is not okay to lose our focus over something that we are supposed to
comprehend in the first place. Distractions on digital media manage to whisk us
to a faraway unknown territory, only to realize we are not meant to be everywhere,
every time. Call it a new form of peer pressure or some kind of digital
inclusiveness, we make attempts to sound knowledgeable about any trending thing
on the internet- no matter how little we seem to care or how little we actually
understand about it.
What is your take on the new age short lived digital attention
span?
Am I the only over-pondering blogger who believes in its existence or
have you experienced it too?
Are you guilty of not paying enough attention or
are you convinced of understanding it well, just the way it is meant to be?
