Friday, February 10, 2017

A Goldfish, Seriously?!?!?


I read a fascinating article today on Axios written by Jim VandeHei and Sarah Fisher entitled, "How Tech Ate The Media And Our Minds which I urge you to read too; just click the link.

There are some amazing statistics about what has happened to our way of taking in info, or maybe not taking in information.  It would seem that the total 24/7 bombardment of info available to our smartphones and other electronic devices, has changed how our brains react.

So what does it have to do with that cute little goldfish?

In ten short years since the iPhone has hit the market, millions of years of evolution have been short- circuited: The goldfish now has a longer attention span than you!

"A Microsoft study has found that since 2000, our attention spans have been cut by 25 per cent-- to shorter than that of a goldfish...," Do you not find this shocking? We keep gold fish to watch them slowly circling their bowl and calming our minds.  If the stat is right, we can only do that for 8 short seconds before we have to look at something else. But the gold fish could and would watch us longer!

"Our brains have been literally swamped and reprogrammed. On average, we check our phones 50 times each day — with some studies suggesting it could three times that amount. We spend around 6 hours per day consuming digital media. As a result, the human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds to eight seconds since 2000, while the goldfish attention span is nine seconds. And we just mindlessly pass along information without reading or checking it. Columbia University found that nearly 60 percent of all social media posts are shared without being clicked on."

The timing of this article really struck me because, just yesterday on this blog in Liar, Liar Pants On Fire, I was talking about posting things without fact checking them.  Seems like I am on to something here!


I don't have an answer to this one- it's just part of the evolution of this world of ours, I suppose.  I can't say it's right or wrong... just something to ponder.  It does speak to my concern over people no longer taking time to dig into things; take time to investigate; really read something.  It's probably why magazine and blog readership is down.  Probably because we don't want to invest energy in reading anything longer than a fb post or a Tweet. The stat seems to prove my thinking that we don't want to take time to investigate or learn...we just want to take time to react.

If that Microsoft Study stat is correct it means that you haven't read any further than that first line after the cute goldfish.  I am sitting here alone typing words that you won't read because your eight second attention span has kicked you out of this post...



... and now you're wondering if you have any Goldfish Crackers around because suddenly you have a craving for them. If that stat is correct, you're no longer here with me reading; you've left to go forage for crackers.

Let me know if you find any and are willing to share.  Wait.  What were we talking about?!

Anyone else get a giggle out of the fact that one of the article authors is named Fisher?  Get it?  Goldfish and Fisher?  Hello?

Namaste' Till Next Time,
Holly She Who Is Apparently Not As Attentive As A Goldfish


1 comment:

Sheena said...

Yiu are once again so right. I had a conversation recently and I said what happened to the good old days everything was done LONG HAND on paper Che is and balances. We remember not allowing Elizabeth to have a calculator until she mastered doing problem solving etc using her brain haha. But she did it we stuck to our guns. But alas as the techno age has invaded us or we have allowed it to we turn to devices ourselves instead of the GOOD OKD FASHIONED METHODS OF LORE....
I read ever single word I did not go for goldfish crackers which I know I have in my cupboard but I wanted to READ IT ALL. Thank yiu as always for making us THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.
I read albeit in my iPad or kindle now instead of paperback or hardback but every day or night usually not always anything educational more of a change of pace get away from share going on.
Reading runs in our family and uts a good thing something to be proud if my grandchildren are avud readers.
I hope more people read your blog and find this interesting and get them PONDERING !!!!

Sheena x

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