I’ve recently become extremely curious about the way blogs and written content on the internet is being viewed.

Are people going to write and READ blogs anymore? or written content on the internet? Are we, as a civilization, done with reading long sentences or…*gasp* paragraphs?

Has the influx, the demand and the reliance of fast paced Tik Tok videos and Instagram reels brought us to the lowest possible level for our attention spans?

I am worried that we have reached a new level for our brains. People want to consume information in bite-sized chunks more readily than lengthy paragraphs. This trend doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, it seems to be getting worse.

Studies have found that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, which is shorter than the attention span of a goldfish (9 seconds).

This is shocking information! So many things in our lives require focused attention for a lengthy period of time. Learning requires attention and time!

Imagine what this “attention shortage” means for the future of education and careers? Not to mention everyday duties like household chores that are often long and BORING?

As much as I want to ditch blogging for good, I think I’ll stay a luddite for a while longer. I want to develop and increase my own attention span. Blogging large blocks of text will help in this process. This requires both my attention and time.

I believe attention is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it gets.

I stretch every day and I do cardio exercise each day on the Peloton. I neglect my attention span. I think it’s important to commit to a period of attention everyday. Picking a topic to blog on and working on it for a half hour or so is a way to train my attention span.

It’s important to remember that there are plenty of people who are still looking for content to read and not just “watch”.