With the convergence of multimedia forms and quick access of mass amount of information at your fingertips, consumers of this generation have extremely shortened attention spans compared to those of the past. People of the current generation have grown up with new forms of technologies that have allowed them to get what they need, now. But the generation takes this for granted.
According to Don Tapscott in “Grown Up Digital”, “Net Geners assume continual, constant access to computers, the Internet and each other, via phone, text or some other still-emerging technology.” Because information is given to us quickly and greatly condensed, we have been accustomed to looking for the next best thing or for the most up-to-date news. The graph below shows a study done by Monash University and shows the average attention span of students attention span in class. If information is not given to us in short and exciting ways, we can ignore it completely.
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| Monash University Study- Average Attention Span of Students |
The media, marketing techniques used by businesses and the tools we use online exemplify this new technological age. Online news sites such as
Yahoo.com and
CNN.com present their news on the front page in short and interactive ways to attractive consumers. CNN contains brief headlines that give basic news information and also provides a slew of short videos. These tend to be less than two minutes and attract readers that they would not otherwise. Yahoo provides pictures alongside every news story and encourages readers to move on to the whole story with interesting questions and subtitles.
Marketing techniques have changed as well. According to an article on
Trumpia, “mobile phones are leading the market race” for new forms of advertising and marketing techniques. Companies text short messages with images to buyers to get the information out quick and easy. People don’t have time to search for news themselves. It is now expected that this news should come to them in a timely manner through new media devices like smart phones and ipads. According to a
research study in mashable.com, “Research indicates that a 30-second ad can be cut in half without losing its power of persuasion. In some cases, an edited commercial proved even more effective than the original version.” New ads have to be short, emotional and memorable in order for buyers to be influenced at all.
Econsultancy gives tips to optimizing current generation websites for consumers with short attention spans.
New forms of social media has aided in shortening the attention span of the current generation. Sites such as twitter provide news the second it happens. Not only is it current, its is condensed into 140 characters or less which provides these consumers with easy to read text. Apps on smartphones allow consumers to view updated information in the palm of your hands and even provide ireports on CNN to view consumer updated content that can be shared to different media sites and via multimedia messaging.
This theory of short attention spans of the current generation can easily be tested at the University of Maryland College Park. During the first look fair, post two forms of the same club meeting on posters next to each other across the campus. One should be flashy and no longer than a sentence. The other should give a long description of the club as well as all of the information a person would need when going. Each poster leads students to separate rooms. According to the theory, the flashy poster with short text should attract the most visitors.
Media, businesses and politicians now have the challenge of meeting up to these high expectations they have created themselves. Information is expected at the speed of light and in creative ways to appease consumers. Because their attention spans will only lessen as technology becomes more advanced.
Tapscott, Don. Grown up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Online Print.
