Its been awhile since I studied. I was going to start a course at Uni but found I couldn't get to quite a few of the subjects, I mean that literally, and had very reluctantly to withdraw, there are real advantages to living in a city!
I wasn't going to mention anything about this but my mind kept wandering back to ninety. I mean its not a bad or difficult number. If you get to ninety years most of us would consider that pretty good. Ninety minutes is about the low average length of a film, and if its a film that interests us we usually consider it not long enough. Being stuck in traffic ninety minutes can seem like the length of time itself and at the end when we finally escape we're often pretty explosive.
The average attention span can be as little as twelve or even eight seconds! Can you imagine that? The Thing is I can't it seems impossibly quick to be able to absorb anything beyond the usual and oft derided first impression. I'm a great believer in first impressions. Not for final cast in stone decisions but for that first glimpse of a character? I wonder if we ever really change our mind I think maybe not or not entirely.
Our attention span obviously varies from the total absorption in something we enjoy and will remain fully engrossed to the end, to the stunned horror of something we totally oppose but will watch often in horrified fascination to the bitter end, but that kind of hatred is also attention grabbing and holding so perhaps they are the same: the old 'love/hate' being the opposite sides of the same coin thing, but mostly our attention span flits like a butterfly landing than fluttering off in many and varied directions.
There are for eg. a few people who read this blog, now most of them are family and friends and whilst I think they probably take the time to read it rather than simply click and go I doubt they spend much of what might be called concentrated attention on it. Probably all they do is skim the surface and to be fair that is probably the way I write most of the posts here to be read. All are fairly short often remaining on top of rather than going deeply into the subject. This is deliberate I don't like the idea that anyone would think I'm trying to sound like an expert and if I go all long winded and pontificational I'm kind of afraid I might give the very impression I want to avoid! Then again I'm actually not that much of an expert on anything.
Possibly the one subject we, including me, are all experts on is our own attention span and most of us being the kind of people who make up the 'average' person are therefore by default the kind of person who should know about attention spans in general, if not in an academic or analytical (spit) fashion then certainly in the much mocked 'I know what I like' one.
Ninety minutes is not a long time but it can seem like it. Can you imagine sitting stone cold conscious in a dentist chair for ninety minutes? I really can't, not without general anaesthetic anyway. Similarly I can't imagine sitting through an entire live performance at the theatre if I dislike the subject, the performance or consider the acting, structure, or crucially the writing, to be inferior. I may not be an expert at anything but I know what I like!
Power point is a boon to teaching, sales and entertainment but anyone who gives a power point display lasting ninety minutes, that's ninety minutes that will never be refunded out of a life by the way, is pushing his or her luck. Power point is not intended to be the kind of riveting stuff that holds our attention for a length of time in what is really in terms of education quite long most classes only last an hour or so. Or perhaps its me I think of power point as intended to brush the surface and whet our appetite for more research or other study. Personally I think of it as a kind of advert for further research or maybe go out and buy the object, book or whatever.
In the real world people on a day trip on what is meant to be a relaxing Saturday may not want to find they've lost a whole ninety minutes! on the for eg. ancient Greeks or whichever nationality you prefer. Its asking a lot as is the presumption that all visitors go to a place because they are deeply fascinated most probably go out of curiosity, curiosity if not handled carefully can have the same attention grabbing advantage as the all too well known goldfish. The other and really most important thing to keep in mind is competition, what else is going on in your field? I write a blog and even though its deliberately mostly not advertised and private it is still and by default in competition with all the, presumably, millions of blogs out there.
Years ago a good friend of mine, really true and name withheld out of respect, would relate fascinating histories of the ancient Greeks. Whilst the audience were watching whichever opera or ballet some of us staff would be sitting in the foyer drinking coffee and listening to him. He died of AIDs and his expertise, which is always particular to the individual, died with him. I've probably forgotten most of the things he told us but what will always be with me is my surprise at finding a member of the catering staff, coffee bar, was such an expert. My reaction, both patronising and snobbish became a lesson to me never to jump to conclusions about people, someone who wears an apron for a living may very well be an expert in a great deal more than coffee! And yes, he held our attention, was a very interesting, informative and educational raconteur.
We're all the same when a subject interests us we take the time to listen but that time is rarely given in ninety minute packages. More like a half hour here an hour there and follow ups on the bus or train to work or school. Do take the time to think about attention span, Saturdays, and people wanting to cram as much into their 'spare time' as possible.
I could have filled this post with statistics I did check and those I give are as I read them, and as accurate as the article I read, but if I formally added them here what purpose would it serve? I've not written this to cover the subject in either great depth or particular statistical accuracy but rather to skim it as we do most things. We acknowledge them with the glance and if sufficiently interested our glance becomes a longer look and then, perhaps, an in depth study.
How much time did you have to spare and how much of that precious time did you devote to this post. Its taken me about three quarters of an hour to write, that's forty five minutes I won't see again! I've a cat either side of me and both dogs at my feet they need my attention, in fact they are demanding it! So maybe, just maybe, I've written this as a wee bit of a lesson to those who have the odd and very rare, five minutes from busy lives to spare, do others the courtesy of acknowledging in advance that they too have busy lives to lead.
I wasn't going to mention anything about this but my mind kept wandering back to ninety. I mean its not a bad or difficult number. If you get to ninety years most of us would consider that pretty good. Ninety minutes is about the low average length of a film, and if its a film that interests us we usually consider it not long enough. Being stuck in traffic ninety minutes can seem like the length of time itself and at the end when we finally escape we're often pretty explosive.
The average attention span can be as little as twelve or even eight seconds! Can you imagine that? The Thing is I can't it seems impossibly quick to be able to absorb anything beyond the usual and oft derided first impression. I'm a great believer in first impressions. Not for final cast in stone decisions but for that first glimpse of a character? I wonder if we ever really change our mind I think maybe not or not entirely.
Our attention span obviously varies from the total absorption in something we enjoy and will remain fully engrossed to the end, to the stunned horror of something we totally oppose but will watch often in horrified fascination to the bitter end, but that kind of hatred is also attention grabbing and holding so perhaps they are the same: the old 'love/hate' being the opposite sides of the same coin thing, but mostly our attention span flits like a butterfly landing than fluttering off in many and varied directions.
There are for eg. a few people who read this blog, now most of them are family and friends and whilst I think they probably take the time to read it rather than simply click and go I doubt they spend much of what might be called concentrated attention on it. Probably all they do is skim the surface and to be fair that is probably the way I write most of the posts here to be read. All are fairly short often remaining on top of rather than going deeply into the subject. This is deliberate I don't like the idea that anyone would think I'm trying to sound like an expert and if I go all long winded and pontificational I'm kind of afraid I might give the very impression I want to avoid! Then again I'm actually not that much of an expert on anything.
Possibly the one subject we, including me, are all experts on is our own attention span and most of us being the kind of people who make up the 'average' person are therefore by default the kind of person who should know about attention spans in general, if not in an academic or analytical (spit) fashion then certainly in the much mocked 'I know what I like' one.
Ninety minutes is not a long time but it can seem like it. Can you imagine sitting stone cold conscious in a dentist chair for ninety minutes? I really can't, not without general anaesthetic anyway. Similarly I can't imagine sitting through an entire live performance at the theatre if I dislike the subject, the performance or consider the acting, structure, or crucially the writing, to be inferior. I may not be an expert at anything but I know what I like!
Power point is a boon to teaching, sales and entertainment but anyone who gives a power point display lasting ninety minutes, that's ninety minutes that will never be refunded out of a life by the way, is pushing his or her luck. Power point is not intended to be the kind of riveting stuff that holds our attention for a length of time in what is really in terms of education quite long most classes only last an hour or so. Or perhaps its me I think of power point as intended to brush the surface and whet our appetite for more research or other study. Personally I think of it as a kind of advert for further research or maybe go out and buy the object, book or whatever.
In the real world people on a day trip on what is meant to be a relaxing Saturday may not want to find they've lost a whole ninety minutes! on the for eg. ancient Greeks or whichever nationality you prefer. Its asking a lot as is the presumption that all visitors go to a place because they are deeply fascinated most probably go out of curiosity, curiosity if not handled carefully can have the same attention grabbing advantage as the all too well known goldfish. The other and really most important thing to keep in mind is competition, what else is going on in your field? I write a blog and even though its deliberately mostly not advertised and private it is still and by default in competition with all the, presumably, millions of blogs out there.
Years ago a good friend of mine, really true and name withheld out of respect, would relate fascinating histories of the ancient Greeks. Whilst the audience were watching whichever opera or ballet some of us staff would be sitting in the foyer drinking coffee and listening to him. He died of AIDs and his expertise, which is always particular to the individual, died with him. I've probably forgotten most of the things he told us but what will always be with me is my surprise at finding a member of the catering staff, coffee bar, was such an expert. My reaction, both patronising and snobbish became a lesson to me never to jump to conclusions about people, someone who wears an apron for a living may very well be an expert in a great deal more than coffee! And yes, he held our attention, was a very interesting, informative and educational raconteur.
We're all the same when a subject interests us we take the time to listen but that time is rarely given in ninety minute packages. More like a half hour here an hour there and follow ups on the bus or train to work or school. Do take the time to think about attention span, Saturdays, and people wanting to cram as much into their 'spare time' as possible.
I could have filled this post with statistics I did check and those I give are as I read them, and as accurate as the article I read, but if I formally added them here what purpose would it serve? I've not written this to cover the subject in either great depth or particular statistical accuracy but rather to skim it as we do most things. We acknowledge them with the glance and if sufficiently interested our glance becomes a longer look and then, perhaps, an in depth study.
How much time did you have to spare and how much of that precious time did you devote to this post. Its taken me about three quarters of an hour to write, that's forty five minutes I won't see again! I've a cat either side of me and both dogs at my feet they need my attention, in fact they are demanding it! So maybe, just maybe, I've written this as a wee bit of a lesson to those who have the odd and very rare, five minutes from busy lives to spare, do others the courtesy of acknowledging in advance that they too have busy lives to lead.
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