How often do you hear this?

“Nobody can focus on anything these days.”

“People are always on their phones!”

“Nobody cares about anything that isn’t on twitter, tiktok, instagram, or youtube.”

“No one reads anymore!”

“People have such a short attention span!”

No, they don’t.

It’s not a short attention span. At least, not exactly in the way you think.

No one can deny that people are distracted at unprecedented levels. But because we misinterpret the symptoms, we over-diagnose the wrong solutions.

Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash.

Why it’s not a short attention span

A short attention span suggests people don’t give sufficient attention to subjects that require deep engagement and offer less than instantaneous rewards.

Here are some basic truths to disprove that idea:

More people are able to read today than ever before in human history.
More people receive higher education, thus engaging with complex subjects, than ever before in human history.

To continue, more PhD theses are not only written today, but also read. More books are written and bought. More libraries exist. Branching beyond simply reading, more people binge-watch seasons of more television content than ever before. More movies (not just from wealthy production studios) find big, global audiences. More long-form articles are written and consumed than at any other time in history.

You can compare to a point in history ten years ago, or twenty, or fifty, or a hundred, and everything I’ve said will remain true.

So what’s happening?

The internet, and social media, have done two important things.

By democratizing the creation of content, they have created vast markets for various types of media - from epic TV shows to 15sec Tiktoks, from 1000-page novels to 128-character tweets.
By bringing everyone online, they have exposed us to more opinions and behaviors than anyone has ever had to deal with.

This means that even though the market for long-form content or deep engagement media has increased tremendously, we remain more likely to see the people who do have short attention spans.

And people with short attention spans have always existed.

A hundred years ago, those were the people not reading Victor Hugo, for example. Understandably, they are likely to be noticed more easily than the other kind of people. We see only them, and we see them more often, and they are larger in numbers, so we think they’re all that exists today. And so the moaning, tinged with golden-age romanticism, begins.

But if isn’t a short attention span, what is the real reason why so many good people don’t read your post, or watch your movie, or listen to your music? If not short attention span, what is it?

The behaviour we attribute to a short attention span is actually a short consideration span. It’s a subtle but significant difference.

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Short consideration span

What is a short consideration span, and where did it come from?

First, the second. I said that a short attention span is nothing new. But a short consideration span is absolutely new. It didn’t exist in this way until about 15-20 years ago. And every year it becomes more significant.

You really need to understand how it happened.

A unique feature of our times is that people have many ways to amuse themselves. To continue to bash on Mr. Hugo, the choice is not between reading Les Miserables or spending the afternoon being les miserables.

There is media in every direction, and all kinds of content to tickle your fancy. You can read a book, or listen to a podcast. You can switch to Netflix if the podcast doesn’t excite you, or browse through YouTube if Netflix isn’t hitting the spot. You can surf, watch, like, retweet, scan, scroll, binge, glance, view, share, comment, open, delete, play, pause, fast-forward, and subscribe to anything created anywhere in the world. Nobody has a captive audience.

For good and for bad, we are spoilt for choice.

And this leads to a short consideration span.

A consideration span is how much time someone will give you before deciding to give you more time.

People want to know what they’re getting into before they get into it, because there are a hundred other places they can be. They want to know what they are committing to, and get a sense for the rewards.

It’s new but also nothing new.

We do it all the time with non-textual media. Every song, movie, YouTube video, and podcast clearly states how much of our time it wants. Before committing, we can watch trailers or listen to teasers. We can pause and resume as we wish.

Text is often treated the same way, even when it doesn’t come with a “reading time” metric. Bookmarks exist. Library loans are extended. Books reside in TBR piles for days, months and even years before they are read.

Optimizing for Reader Attention

To optimize for reader attention, we need to now correlate human behaviour with this understanding of a short consideration span. What is the nature of the beast, and how are we to confront it?

I model human behaviour around long-form text as a series of filters. Cross them all, and you get a reader for your piece:

The first filter - Faced with a wall of text, the reader immediately puts it through their first filter - is it simply too long, or is it short enough?
This filter has to do with the personality of the reader. There are some people who will simply never read anything longer than a quick-read.
The second filter - After deciding it is something they care to read, the reader will want to know how much time it might need.
Time is the greatest commodity in the world. Do not be affronted. You have no right to someone’s time.
But the length of the piece is not the only consideration here. The end of the piece is one point of reward for a reader, but a well-written piece will reward reader attention at various points. This is what the reader will gauge. Does the piece offer a sense of accomplishment at the 20%, 40%, or 50% mark? Are all the rewards only at the end? This increases the time-cost.
The third filter - Is it just a wall of text? Do you pause to let them catch a breath? Can they look away or do you want 100% attention? If so, why? Who are you to demand this? (closes tab irritably)

We just want dope, really.

A sense of accomplishment, a reward, a feeling of completion, a sense of progress - what are they but different forms of dopamine? We are thrill-seekers. It’s why Instagram and Twitter appeal so much. The infinite scroll tantalizes the possibility of discovering something you never expected. A rush of blood to the head. Even when we know it will disappoint, the anticipation brings a bit of dopamine too. We are human beings after all, just looking for a quick fix.

Some reasons why we lose attention

Hint: It’s not so much the degradation of modern society as evolutionary biology.

Even if multiple forms of media are a modern construct, and handheld 5G devices newer still, tuning out is hardly new. It is how we have conserved our energies since the dawn of time. Biologically speaking, we are better tuned to spotting significant changes than noticing every single thing.

When we lived in the forests, we didn’t pay attention to every blade of grass as much as we did to sudden movements. It was less necessary to notice the former, but having an eye for the latter kept us alive. Naturally, our senses tune out what is monotonous and unchanging, because it reduces the load on the senses, and keeps us fresh and alert to times of crisis.

Here are a couple of benign life-examples where this manifests:

You drive home along empty streets, thinking of one thing or the other. You pull into the driveway, switch off the engine, blink, and realize you can’t remember any of the journey home. Did you really drive all the way back? Did you obey all the traffic laws? You have no idea. It feels like a daze, like you were locked in some kind of auto-pilot.
You aren’t entirely wrong. Everything is running just fine, but your mind is in power-saving mode. I also think of it as screen-saver mode.
You’re in a lecture in class. And the professor speaks in one of two ways. The first is a monotonous drone. No gestures, no change in cadence. The second one is more dynamic, walking around the room, maybe waving their arms, modulating their volume, pitch and tone. Which of the two classes are you more likely to fall asleep in? Obviously the former. Your senses have tuned out. Your mind begins to reject monotonous sounds, to preserve itself for the sudden changes.
Not coincidentally, monotonous droning sounds are used by apps to put insomniacs to sleep every night. It works, because biology.

It’s not all your fault

So where does this leave the individual content creator needing 10 or 15 minutes from their audience? Everything said and done, we are facing stiff competition. The competition (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok) have billions of dollars and entire marketing teams with big degrees and even bigger student loans. You won’t win very often.

Everything on the phone is exciting, but always less exciting than the next thing.

This is the problem. We jump from feed to feed, scroll to scroll, notification to notification, hoping that something will satisfy our craving. But the addiction grows, and resistance grows stronger. Just like any strong drug addiction, it is quite unhealthy.

What we can do

The reader considers, then scans, then begins. After a few minutes, they reconsider again. Should they keep reading? Is this still worth it?

If you are still reading this article, I think it means I am doing a good job!

Here are some ideas:

Tear down this wall. Break up that wall of text. Use shorter sentences. Divide arguments into neat paragraphs that rise towards a conclusion. This is not a trick. It gives people a real sense of progress, and space to breathe.
Use multiple forms of media. As the philosopher Kevin Malone once said - Why use more words when few words do trick? Use illustrations to make your point. Pictures, even stock pictures, give people a chance to reflect, to reconsider their perspective, and to refresh before diving back into the text.
Formatting is your friend. The bold, italics, underlining, font size etc features are there for a reason. Use them with discretion, but use them.
Think about your reader. They don’t owe you anything. Be glad for people’s time and attention, because both are extremely limited. Don’t waste either time or attention.
Which reminds me, if you’re reading this, will you subscribe to my newsletter already?
Go where your audience hangs out. The same person that scrolls right past your IG post may give 30 minutes to a podcast. User behaviour is not only about the person, but also the platform. Pick the right platform for your content.

The point of this piece was to explain a common problem to you in a new way, with the hope that it brings some fresh ideas to possible solutions. If you think I missed something, please share your thoughts in the comments below. If you liked reading this, share it with someone who may also need it.

It's not a short attention span