Attention Span & Linear Stories

[BTGBullseye]

This article from BetaNews kinda got me to thinking that it might be interesting to see if we ourselves can see how we fit into the different internet demographics sections.

 

BetaNews Article: The misunderstood 'digital native' has a two-minute attention span

 

There have been quite a few studies aimed at figuring out what makes the so-called "digital native" (i.e. children of the 90's who have had Web access and mobile technology their entire lives) tick.

 

Most of them arrive at some disparaging conclusion or other: "Digital natives are slow to pick up nonverbal cues," "Digital natives need help understanding search," and my personal favorite, "Beware the Digital Native!" (in which Enrique Salem, president and CEO of Symantec, says digital natives don't think about identity and security "the way we do.")

 

Magazine publisher Time Inc. wanted to find out about the cross-platform media consumption habits of digital natives, and see how they compare to the habits of "digital immigrants" (i.e. consumers who were introduced to mobile technology as adults.)

 

To do this, Time hired Boston's Innerscope Research to hook up 30 individuals with biometric monitoring, and point-of-view camera glasses to collect observational data for 300 hours.

 

What did they learn?

 

The "digital natives" switched their attention between various media platforms (such as television, magazines, tablets, smartphones, or channels within platforms) 27 times per hour. Just about once every other minute.

 

And because there is so much time spent switching, the user's emotional engagement is low. The biometric gear captured fewer emotional highs and lows as a result of their media consumption, and subequently the act of switching was used to regulate mood.

 

While this is itself useful data, it's not entirely startling. Kids' brains can handle tons of different streams of information. The startling part of the study was the fact that digital natives are not disrupted by a non-linear narrative.

 

Digital Immigrants wanted to see a beginning, middle, and end to stories in that order, but natives accepted beginning, middle, and end in any order, almost like packet-based storytelling.

 

It wasn't the biggest sample possible, but it is an interesting look at a demographic that grown-ups just don't seem to understand.

 

So how about you? Are you a beginning-middle-end person, or can you take in a non-linear story?

[Pinkie Pie]

I'm definitely the latter, and I think I'm a digital native being that I was born in the late 90's. I don't switch between various forms of media like it says there, though I do stick with the same one for longer than I probably should. (ie. videogames all day erry day) I also realize (and have kind of realized already) that a lot of adult fans of any sort of game complain with that 'beginning middle end' type of thinking while I'm reading it and not really seeing any problem with it. That may also explain my love for character creation, 'make your own adventure' type games like Mass Effect. So, I'm gonna assume I'm a Digital Native without the ADD tendencies.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm a bit of both, I think.

[BTGBullseye]

I'm an obvious Native, but I like not switching rapidly if I can help it. (I can do it, I just prefer not to)

[Chuckthe2nd]

More or less the same here. I'm definitely a Native, but I can and will concentrate and focus if I need to.

[Doom Shepherd]

I was born in 1971 When I was growing up, the Atari 2600 was state-of-the-art.

 

I actually vaccilate back and forth between having laser-like high-intensity focus, and having the attention span of a gnat on OOH, SHINY!

 

I would say I generally prefer linear narrative, but unlike my mother, I was able to follow "Pulp Fiction" with no difficulty, and stories told through extensive use of flashbacks (especially visually) pose no significant challenges.

[Estophelen]

A bit of both... maybe? I really don't know, my point of view isn't very objective.

[Ross Scott]

Even though my earliest experience of the internet comes from BBS, I guess I'm immigrant. I can't fathom wanting to switch between media 27 times in an hour. Even for games I always like them to be full screen, I find it less enjoyable if they're windowed so I'm receiving other information. I generally have a good attention span as long as exercise, but I can handle rapid multitasking (like a RTS) as long as the decisions and operations can be done in a few seconds. If they require more in-depth thought, then no.

[Doctor Felix Whooves]

I am a native with the ADD. I often find myself reading something then dropping that to watch a vid, then dropping that to check this forum. And repeat

[Alyxx Thorne]

I am a native with the ADD. I often find myself reading something then dropping that to watch a vid, then dropping that to check this forum. And repeat

I also multitask a lot, like browsing a forum or playing a game while watching something. It's like it's hard to focus on just one thing, I have to do several.

[Obsidian]

I'm a native without the ADD tendencies. At most, I'll have music playing or videos in the background while I read articles on websites (which I frequently switch, but only because there are so many articles on each site that I want to read). Aside from that, I have no problem sitting down and watching a few TV shows, a movie, or playing a game for an extended period without switching tasks.

[Alyxx Thorne]

I'm a native without the ADD tendencies. At most, I'll have music playing or videos in the background while I read articles on websites (which I frequently switch, but only because there are so many articles on each site that I want to read). Aside from that, I have no problem sitting down and watching a few TV shows, a movie, or playing a game for an extended period without switching tasks.

Same here, in fact I'm exactly the same.

[Pinkie Pie]

So far tonight I have switched between watching a video on Youtube to playing a videogame, videogaming roughly 8 hours with a couple hours worth of a break the whole day (I don't normally play games that long btw), and a 30 minute video on the internet. And I'm a digital native.

 

It's fun crushing expectations.

 

Although I SUPPOSE coming onto the forums now counts as well.

[meffer5]

Does this say anything about the attention span? how many of the topics an average internet user sees take longer than a few minutes to read? most of the articles I see are rather short and videos rarely last more than 10 minutes. and with videogames you dont often see someone sit down play for five minutes and than stop. plus i really do have add/adhd yet somehow nothing holds my attention longer than the internet/videogames. (well i guess the crazy pills help)