Why a basic understanding of attention span can be misleading.

It isn’t uncommon to hear the phrase, “Attention spans are shorter now than ever!” Often followed by a laundry list of reasons.

But this basic understanding is misleading or downright wrong.

In a study of Graduate Students (always remember the audience), researchers discovered that the average attention span was less than 8 seconds.

But then explain the explosion of “binge-worthy television” or “3-hour+ podcast episodes.”

It’s because what attention-span studies often neglect is context. People’s attention spans may be shorter, but a more accurate description is that “People have more choice for where they invest their attention and are exceptionally quick to change their focus should something not spike their interest.”

Aka — if people don’t like what you are saying, doing or showing, they won’t stick around.

And that is the difference. It isn’t that we can’t focus, but we have infinitely more options for where we choose to invest our time.

Spark interest, and you may find that attention lasts longer than 8 seconds.