The Real Reason Our Attention Spans Are Shrinking And How To Fix It

There is hope

I am, admittedly, guilty of judging people for their extremely short attention span. TikTok didn’t bring this on, but it certainly contributed. Carl Sagan was writing about these sound bites getting shorter and shorter. We notice that our discourse is shrinking. What is wrong with us?

Most months, I am still able to completely read a book or two. My TBR pile would prefer I make that four. I assumed I was safe from the problem, because I am not one to scroll through social media. I gave it up a couple years ago and have basked in the glow of peace ever since. Still. I knew I had lost focus somehow. Despite my upturned nose.

Then I read an article written by a Professor. This was a guy with a PhD, talking about how he had lost the ability to read as much as he used to. He spoke of colleagues experiencing the same. Well. If the people who have to read endlessly are struggling, maybe I should not feel so weak for my inability to get through a book without thirty side-quests.

It is scary to think about. We need to be able to get through factual articles to help form logical opinions. Yet, so many people can’t sit down and read, let alone take the time to check the veracity of the information. We know there are plenty of opinions out there, molded by nothing more than a headline.

The problem is not that we have all become pathetic excuses for human intellect. It is that there is now so much content that our attention has been divided to the max. The solution? Take a moment each day to be mindful of this and prioritize. Or, move to Tibet. That could work too.