Just when you thought it couldn’t get much more difficult to get attention online, a new study reveals that global attention spans are narrowing.
The research, conducted by the Technical University of Denmark, finds that due to the amount of information that is presented to the public, people have more to focus on, and are spending even less time than previously on each piece of information. Oddly, the study also found that the level of attention which the hottest topics reach has not changed significantly.
“Content is increasing in volume, which exhausts our attention and our urge for ‘newness’ causes us to collectively switch between topics more regularly,” said Philipp Lorenz-Spreen of Max Planck Institute for Human Development that also participated in the study.
Of course, this means business communications designed to generate attention, drive interest and even illicit a response are now going to have be work harder than ever to engage the intended audience, and to get them to click for more.
You can read the full study here.
