Recently, in an essay titled “Escaping Media Control” I cited research on the length of TV commercials in 2020, the most recent data available. That length was as short as ten seconds but on average 30 seconds. The number of commercials per hour varied from 11.1 to 15.1. TV viewing per day varied among age groups but averaged 4.3 hours. Based on that data, I concluded that viewers had to shift their attention from a program, to one or more commercials, and then back to the program, between 48 and 65 times a day, each attention shift contributing to a shortened attention span.
For a few days after writing that essay, I noticed that more attention shifts were being forced on viewers not only between programs and commercials but also within programs and commercials. (Though the patterns are more frequently employed now than previously, they are not new.)
Curious, I wondered how much more numerous the attention shifts would prove to be if the internal ones were considered. I therefore taped a segment of a news program I usually watch and then played it back frame by frame and tallied all the shifts.
For example, when a reporter asked several people in a restaurant for their views of political developments, I tallied each move to a different person as one shift in attention. I also counted the camera’s return to the studio as an attention shift and each host’s subsequent comments the same. Similarly, when the screen was then split to add another reporter and the commentary shifted from person to another, I tallied accordingly. In eight minutes of the program block, I tallied 27 attention shifts. Moreover, as these shifts were occurring, other news briefs were streaming across the bottom of the screen, each one tempting viewers to their attention there.
I then did a similar but separate tally when the program gave way to commercials, counting as one shift every change that occurred on the screen from one commercial to another or within a commercial. By “within” I mean, for example, the shift from one person’s breathless praise of a product to another’s similar endorsement in the same commercial; or the shift from one group of people dancing with joy over a pharmaceutical miracle, to another group doing the same. In four minutes of the commercial block there were seven commercials, and within those seven commercials there were 72 attention shifts. That number is not a misprint. Let me say it again— seventy-two attention shifts.
Combined, the program block and the commercial block led viewers to 99 forced attention shifts in 12 minutes. For average viewers who watch TV for 4.3 hours daily, that suggests 425 forced attention shifts per day. That number is considerably higher than the 48-65 I identified in “Escaping Media Control.” The difference makes clear that attention span shifts have a greater negative influence on behavior than has been generally acknowledged. The following facts suggest how serious that negative influence is.
Paying attention to what is happening in front of us and around us is a central requirement in every aspect of life.
From early childhood paying attention enables us to receive and apply our parents’ lessons about honesty, respecting others, contributing to family harmony, and behaving properly in public. When we go to school paying attention helps us acquire reading and listening skills, understand and apply the lessons from textbooks and teachers, and participate in classroom discussions. It also is essential to receiving, appreciating, and obeying school rules and regulations. Paying attention is also vital to singing in a choir, playing a musical instrument, and participating in team sports.
After our formal education is completed, paying attention continues to be important. It enables us to be observant, stimulates our curiosity, helps us distinguish more important from less important matters, encourages us to apply reasoning in the pursuit of truth, and leads us to meaningful ideas, All these developments enhance performance in virtually every field of endeavor and make us better citizens, neighbors, spouses, parents, and friends.
These facts demonstrate how important a highly developed attention span is for success in every stage of life. They also underscore the immeasurable harm done by the media’s shrinking of Americans’ attention spans.
Copyright © 2024 by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero. All rights reserved
