Short Attention Span

How do you test the attention span of a goldfish? Search "goldfish attention span" online and you will find a ton of articles quoting the Statistic Brain Research Institute (SBRI). The over-popular reference tells you that today, a goldfish has a higher attention span than a person.

This reference is everywhere. Turns out, the goldfish/human comparison is a little misleading. The SBRI state that tests conducted in 2000 compared to tests in 2013 reveal the average attention span for people has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds. Their site also states that a goldfish can pay attention for 9 seconds.

What a sensational headline - "Goldfish are more focused than humans!" To get clear, there are different kinds of attention spans ranging from 8 seconds to 20 minutes. It's much more complicated than the simple comparison. They base the 8-seconds statistic on sustained attention. The SBRI definition is "the amount of concentrated time on a task without becoming distracted."

That still sounds like the important kind of attention you need to drive a car or tie your shoes. 8 seconds isn't enough to get the job done. 8 seconds is what they give cowboys to ride a bull.

It turns out, our ability to quickly refocus after minor distractions keep us on target. The takeaway here is not the length of time it takes before we get distracted. Our quick refocus takes care of that issue. The takeaway is that something has reduced our sustained attention span by 33% in just 13 years. What is it and is it a good or bad thing?

According to a Microsoft study in the spring of 2015, shorter attention spans are a result of people adapting to their new environment. The study admits that "our digital lifestyle" is depleting our "ability to remain focused on a single task, particularly in non-digital environments." The good news is that we are "becoming better at doing more with less via shorter bursts of high attention and more efficient encoding to memory."

More with less. Shorter bursts of high attention. More efficient encoding to memory. The way we digest information is changing the way our brains work. You need to adapt how you deliver your message to your prospect to get results. Danah Boyd, with Microsoft Research, puts it this way - “Brains are being rewired — any shift in stimuli results in a rewiring...the techniques and mechanisms to engage in rapid-fire attention shifting will be extremely useful”

As we understand that people are "less effective at filtering out distractions" we should also understand that we are developing an increased frequency for something new. Microsoft points out that this means we have more opportunities to "hijack the attention" of our prospects but need to work harder to "maintain their attention."

Things have changed. Getting responses from busy people requires new patterns and techniques today. Matching the message of your solution to the way your prospect gets and responds to information is key to getting the response you want.