Humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, according to a new Microsoft study.
A recent Microsoft study has found that the human attention span has come down drastically since the start of the century. The decline in attention span has been attributed to increase usage of smartphones as well as the abundance of content available online.
Microsoft conducted the study on 2,000 people and used electroencephalograms (EEGs) to monitor the brain activity of another 112 in the study, which sought to determine the impact that pocket-sized devices and the increased availability of digital media and information have had on our daily lives. The report found that people could focus on a task for 12 seconds in the year 2000, while the number has dropped to 8 seconds in 2013, i.e. one second less than a goldfish. The reduction in attention is due to a combination of increased usage of smartphones and a flood of content. The report states that younger people find themselves compulsively checking their phones, and the glut of things to do on the web (such as social networking) makes it all too easy to find diversions.
The report adds that although the increased usage of technology is hurting attention spans, it also has an upside. Users who are addicted to gadgets are improving their abilities to both multitask and concentrate in short bursts. They get a better sense of what deserves their attention and are also able to commit useful things to memory. However, spending too much time on social networking sites tends to make things worse as a whole. The decrease in focus was seen across all age groups and genders in the study. People in the age bracket of 18 to 34 had a 31 per cent high sustained attention span compared to those age 55 and over at 35 per cent.
“[People] with more digital lifestyles struggle to focus in environments where prolonged attention is needed,” the study says. "While digital lifestyles decrease sustained attention overall, it’s only true in the long-term. Early adopters and heavy social media users front load their attention and have more intermittent bursts of high attention. They’re better at identifying what they want/don’t want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory." “We are moving from a world where computing power was scarce to a place where it now is almost limitless, and where the true scarce commodity is increasingly human attention," says Satya Nadella.
Source: Microsoft
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Silky Malhotra
Silky Malhotra loves learning about new technology, gadgets, and more. When she isn’t writing, she is usually found reading, watching Netflix, gardening, travelling, or trying out new cuisines. View Full Profile
