A new study has shown that our attention span has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds. That’s one second less than a goldfish can concentrate on a thought while swimming around a fish bowl!
We become easily distracted because we’re always thinking about the next thing. Recent research from Stanford University shows that Millennials in particular are easily distracted and struggle to engage with or learn anything after 30 minutes (27 minutes to be exact).
As radio coach, much of my time is spent training next-generation radio presenters, and I can attest to the validity of this research. My one-hour training sessions have had to be adapted to allow for the short attention span of those I’m teaching. This week I had my first training session with a young guy who heads up the student ministry in a church in our city. As I gave him (what I thought was) a brief overview of radio, I could see his eyes glaze over at around 20 minutes into my enthusiastic delivery. I realised that our next training session would need to involve a lot more variety, change of pace, and active participation.
Social media and our easy access to anything, everything, and everyone we know through our phones has heightened this insatiable desire for something new and different every few minutes.
I know you’ve probably read plenty on the dangers of addiction to social media and digital media but what I wanted to get you to do today is to put your phone on silent and look up at the world around you.
We miss out on so much of the wonder of life because our heads are permanently down, looking at our phones.
Perhaps you’ve been waiting for an exciting opportunity to come your way, or you’ve been hoping for that wonderful man or woman to come along and sweep you off your feet. That opportunity or that guy or girl may be right there in front of you, but because you’re looking down at your phone, reading your Twitter feed, or watching that video on Facebook, you’re missing out.
If you’ve ever travelled on the London underground you’ll know that no one looks at anyone else while sitting on the train. Everyone is either reading the newspaper or they’re looking at their phones. I heard a really great story yesterday about a couple who met as they were getting on the tube. They locked eyes (before they had a chance to look down at their phones), got chatting, went on a date, and now they’re married.
Take the time to look up from your phone today – I guarantee you’ll see some pretty amazing stuff. Enjoy!