I'm Sorry...What Did You Say?

“…current research indicates that the attention span of millennial teens has documentably, physiologically changed – shortened, of course! -- and broadened to include more types of “input” simultaneously from that of the previous generations. You need quick-burst information presented in eye-catching ways to secure their attention to what you’re trying to portray.”

I read this in a client email recently with regard to a teen curriculum we are developing at work, and it gave me chills. It both intrigues and depresses me, but it doesn't surprise me. We humans are evolving, no doubt, but to what end?

I would like to be a poet or even a songwriter, but when would I find time to do that? I am already so over-committed that when I do finally sit down each day (sometimes at 9 or 10pm), I don't have one more brain cell or introspective thought to dedicate to profound thinking.

I often wonder what it was like back when Poet could be your profession, when you could wander around in the quiet woods (and there were plenty of woods left) and pontificate on the beauty of nature, or whatever, uninterrupted, for as long as you wanted. True, life was simpler then, and it was more difficult to survive. But the luxury of focus just doesn't seem to exist now, not if you want to live in a house and drive a car and be a "productive" member of society. Today, if you are a person who does one task at a time and it takes you all day to do it, you are totally useless and obsolete.

We are conditioned to take in as much visual and aural stimulation and do as many activities at one time as is possible, and we call this productivity. I sit in meetings with 15 people, all on their laptops, half-listening to the agenda while answering as many emails as they can. If they did not do this, they wouldn't be able to keep up with their jobs. Someone told me today that they work 70 hours a week on a regular basis, and each day they put off 200-300 requests to deal with later. I always wonder, "When is later?" and "When does it end, when we die?".

Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with this? Maybe this kind of action is leading us into a super-human existence, and I am just an ignorant relic, but it feels counter-intuitive to the core of my being. No one pays attention to anyone anymore; they don't have the patience to listen. If we can't stop the buzzers and rings and tweets and email on a small flat 2D screen long enough to look at each other and make a human connection, how can the human connection survive?