A sidewalk cafe in Prague … people savoring words in a book. Will scenes like this become extinct? In our world of shrinking attention spans, I worry that the pleasure of reading is becoming a relic of the past.
Scientists say we now have shorter attention spans than goldfish, who can maintain focus for 9 seconds.
I personally know several people who do not read books, articles or anything longer than an abbreviated text or tweet. And consider this: Analytics show that most people who receive email notices for my new blog posts will open the message to look at the photo. (Which is good news.) But a good number of them will not click through to read the one-minute story that accompanies the image. There’s no time or attention span for that.
For those of you still reading to the end of this post, I thank you. I fear that you’re a disappearing breed.
P.S. If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it with a friend or posting to your social media account.