This Message Will Self-Destruct in 33 Seconds
source link: https://tomtunguz.com/this-message-will-self-destruct-33-seconds/
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
2 minute read / Apr 4, 2024 /
This Message Will Self-Destruct in 33 Seconds
The average American attention span has fallen from 150 seconds in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 to 47 seconds in 2023 - a 5-6% annual rate of decline.
| Year | Avg American Attention Span (sec) | CAGR |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 150 | - |
| 2012 | 75 | -6% |
| 2023 | 47 | -5% |
How does this compare to these blog posts?
In 2013, the average reader dwelled on this site for 47 seconds.
Today, it’s 33 seconds, a 3.6% decline - which is a bit better ! but probably within the realm of statistical noise ¡
Over the past decade, the average word count per post on this site has fallen 40% from approximately 560 at the peak to approximately 350 today.
| Metric | Annual CAGR |
|---|---|
| Attention Span Change | -5% |
| Blog Dwell Time Change | -4% |
| Word Count Change | -4% |
So the deflation is consistent. We could argue the posts themselves are shorter, which reduces dwell time - but it’s the other way around.
Content on the internet has compressed : YouTube shorts & tweets come to mind. They provide a faster time to value/dopamine. Authors, rewarded for shorter content, mirror the rest of the web.
So, in ten years, when I update this data, expect it to be in a haiku like this one:
Attention span drops,
From one fifty to forty-seven,
Web’s brief dance evolves.
In the realm of blogs,
Seconds tick from forty-seven,
To thirty-three, soft fall.
Words on screen shrink too,
From five-sixty to three-fifty,
Echoes of the quick pulse.
Who said poetry is dead?
Read More:
Rubrik S-1 - Burning the Boats in Data Security
Recommend
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK