The 5-Second Attention Span

I remember when I first started graduate school. I hadn't been in college for five years and decided to get my MBA while working full-time. The first time I picked up a textbook, it felt like torture. I had become accustomed to skimming e-newsletters, the Web and trade mags for relevant information. My brain was no longer trained to absorb long, complicated text and memorize it for the weekly Economics tests that my professor scheduled.

Fast-forward 10 years, and I now long for the days when I had time to read an article in a trade mag. Today's marketers are bombarded with messages every second of the day. Twitter, IM, email, texting and the mobile computers that we call cell phones have all been "game changers" that have kept us plugged 24/7/365. Many days, I have trouble finishing one thought before moving on to the next.

A colleague recently asked me if I check Twitter on my cell phone, and I replied that I opt not to so that my head won't explode. I joke about it, but I feel like the constant shifting of focus is truly changing the wiring inside my head. Perhaps that's why the younger generations are usually the earliest adopters of new, more connected technology. They don't have to re-learn new habits (who under the age of 30actually sits down to read a Sunday newspaper, by the way). They already have a 5-second attention span, and those who don't are moving in that direction. Skim, evaluate, act, or move on. Repeat.

Usually a short attention span is reported as a bad thing, but an upside is the ability to prioritize on the fly and make decisions quickly and efficiently. Otherwise, you may feel one step behind in a world that has a very short memory and is constantly moving on to the next gadget, sensational news story or trend. For example, have you ever tried to find a Tweet that was posted the day before, and you forget who posted it? Frustrating. It isn't easy to scroll back into history when the latest news is reported 140 characters at a time--in real time.

For marketers, this also has implications for reaching consumers. We have always had to find ways to "cut through the clutter" to ensure our messages get to the intended target market. That is more important now than ever. Messages must not only be targeted, relevant, and memorable, but in many cases, entertaining and easy to access at a later point in time. Marketers don't want their target customers saying, "I really liked that ad; what was that website again? Oh well, on to the next thing on my to do list."

The good news is that Social Media allows two-way communication between consumers and marketers. It has also become easier to measure online buzz through tools available through online media vendors. The bad news is that it is more and more difficult to become 'top of mind' with your market and stay there. Especially when we have become a '140 character or less' society.