Lousy Search Results. An Attention Span Issue?
May 15, 2015
I read the enervating “Humans Have Shorter Attention Span Than Goldfish, Thanks to Smartphones.” Yep, thanks. When I am working and someone speaks to me, I often let out a squeal and twitch. I concentrate on the task at hand to the exclusion of the world. Some folks may lack this old-school concentration.
According to the write up, short attention spans are due to smartphones, not stupidity, a failure to exercise discipline over the mind, or the cranial wiring which permits one to focus. I learned:
According to scientists, the age of smartphones has left humans with such a short attention span even a goldfish can hold a thought for longer. Researchers surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms. The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds.
Right, 12 seconds. That is probably enough attention for pre-Millennials. Eight seconds is too darned long to concentrate on any one thing.
Is this the next Dark Web research specialist I will hire?
When one of the people lobbying me for work whips out a smartphone, scans an iPad, and lets his or her eyes roam around the room—that’s it. No work. The goldfish has a nine second attention span. The fish I have watched in the holding tank in a Chinese restaurant in Wu Han seemed to be able to fix their attention for far long. One red fish just hovered in place and regarded me for 30 seconds maybe more.
Instead of hiring humans, perhaps I should go with a giant koi? Are lousy search skills an example of what happens when one cannot concentrate? Nah, blame the vendor or the IT department. Entitlement management works well.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2015
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