The Attention Span Regression

The average attention span of human beings is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000, to 8 seconds in the year 2015, to 6 seconds in 2019.

That is 3 seconds lesser than the 9-second attention span of your average goldfish.

How did this regression happen? With the advent of technology, people have gotten easy access to a variety of distractions. And everything is literally available at your fingertips – Tiktok, Instagram, Whatsapp, News, Online Shopping. And these easy access distractions have caused a major disruption in Human Attention Spans.

But the bigger question here is: Have the other cognitive skills of humans improved during the same period? Have we evolved as a race or are we undoing centuries of evolution? Well, it’s too soon to tell. And I’ve focussed on this task for too long now. I’m going to Instagram for a bit.