Have we gotten so used to 'fast food' style of information delivery that we no longer have the attention span to, for example, read and finish an entire novel? Are we seeing the effects of the MTV generation where snippets of information are more than enough? http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s 2007-03-19T07:43:10Z pawn http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/pawn http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s#comment1 2006-11-25T11:49:15Z Lsergent http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/lsergent Thanks to advertising, it's a very noisy world we live in. A bit less shouting and a bit more silence would do us all some good. Oh and you need to drop the apostrophe. Its a possessive: "Has society lost its attention span", not a contraction: "Has society lost it's attention span". Sorry but proofreading is what I do. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s#comment2 2006-11-26T18:53:05Z JBonnin http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/jbonnin It is also about education at home. We are getting to that very serious moment in which too many parents are unable to set the example of enjoying reading. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s#comment3 2006-11-27T07:47:12Z Simpler http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/simpler It's a good point that our environment is infecting us with "Attention Deficit Syndrome" to some extent. Of course it's up to the individual to manage it, it's just that this is very hard considering the bombardment of information we're subject to. Since simplicity is defined by our knowledge level about a subject (the more knowledge you have the more simple something often seems), the loss of attention span will lead to more things that we consider complex. I think, this could reinforce our demand for simplicity in our lives, while ironically it's our own attention deficit that is creating our feeling of complexity in the first place http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s#comment4 2006-12-01T02:44:53Z ztyler http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/ztyler In this day and age where information overload is the norm rather than the exception, it's important for the individual to counteract this by taking time to slow things down and 'smell the roses'. http://www.livesimplicity.com/topics/has-society-lost-its-attention-s#comment5 2006-12-06T06:21:44Z chrisek http://www.livesimplicity.com/users/chrisek It's interesting that this idea of information overload and the need for companies to capture people's interest has now been labeled the "attention economy". According to this Business 2.0 article, too many choices has caused us to 'zone out' and ignore most of the information presented to us. It appears that the next round of start-up companies will be focused on creating ways for us to get the information that we need, providing a more personalized experience by only presenting us information that we are truly interested in.