generational attention span difference?

[sophiaserpentia]

Supposedly Dailykos is all the shizzle in the blogosphere.  But i took this off my del.icio.us page after maybe a week, because it's just too jumbled and chaotic for me.  (It doesn't help that Markos has a penchant for being a clueless twit.)  The way it's laid out just kind of assaults my mind, i don't know if i can describe the dissonance i experience looking at their page any more clearly than that.

I find out that the average readership of Dailykos is much younger than me, and i think about the similar problems i have with Myspace, which is also popular among a much younger crowd than me.  And i wonder, is there some kind of generational brain-wiring difference going on here?

Maybe my attention-focusing faculty works differently or something.  I like to submerge myself mentally and experientially in what i'm doing, and i HATE to be distracted.  I've always been a bit overstimulation-averse.

One thing about Myspace and Dkos is that the main text takes up less than half the screen.  And this means my eyes have to travel all over the damn place to figure out what goes where, and it's too much work.

Maybe it's the same difference that makes me despise instant messaging and rebel against even having my cell phone turned on most of the time: a neural intolerance for instantaneous multi-thread distraction.  I am capable of changing my train of thought on a moment's notice, but i really don't like to.  I particularly loathe the implication of instant messaging, that my own trains of thought will always take a back seat to the whim of half a dozen horny net geeks who swoop in to ask for sexual favors while i'm trying to plot my novel or think Deep Thoughts.

It doesn't matter that there are settings to make me visible only to a select few people.  No offense, but i don't want to be bothered by a IM from anyone, even any of you.  It's nothing personal.  Getting an IM makes me want to rip out my hair, even if it's from someone i like.  I know i am socially hobbling myself, but it's for my own sanity.  I'm just can't be any more plugged in; i'm too linear for it.

Comments

[lassiter.livejournal.com]

i think growing up watching tv programs your brain to jump rapidly between different ideas in very short bursts. and with text messaging and IMing and the like we're programming our brains to multi-thread.

I'm worried that the "multi-threading" tendency may come at the expense of the ability to maintain long-term single-pointed concentration. I know that when my job goes through its intermittent stages of lots of little things needing attention in rapid succession (both computer-based and paper-based), that my ability to just sit quietly and read a novel or nonfiction in my off-time is negatively impacted, and it takes a while to return.

I suspect the jury is still out on whether the next generations will lose the ability to read and enjoy long novels, or to follow long trains of thought or conversation, due to fragmented concentration spans.

[herbalgrrl.livejournal.com]

you know, you have a point and...

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I'm sorry, did you say something?

[alobar.livejournal.com]

One positive aspect of the younger generation's short attention span is that they get bored during an in-depth palm or card reading, so I give them a 3 minute reading instead of a 10 minute reading. They don't lose interest, and my hourly income is significantly increased if I read a hoard of young people with poor attention spans. If I bounce around several topics, then weaved it all back together, if I don't complete sentences, and pause briefly whenever a cop car, pretty girl, or other distraction manifests, then pick up right where I left off, they are amazed at my ability to keep them entertained. I use the same technique on children who have poor attention spans who have not yet learned to focus or maintain interest. That is to say, I talk down to them and treat the college age people with poor attention spans like I am dealing with addlepated pre-teens.