Graffiti 2009-10

ALEX REDINGER

The inherent irony in writing this article is that those who would most value from reading it will become bored while skimming over it, and thus their unbridled attentions will lead them away to other sections of Graffiti. Perhaps to see if Lick’s coupons have finally made their return. I am not insulted, however: this is to be expected, with dozens of other distractions at their disposals. I want to point out, though, that the fidgety nature of people today isn’t something that has persisted historically: the average attention span of humanity has been on the declining significantly for the last century, in tandem with the rise of technology.

The most poignant example of this can be seen with movies. The Godfather is widely seen as one of the best films of all time. Every aspect of the movie, from acting to musical scores, is simply brilliant. Although being released in 1972, it has permeated into society thoroughly enough that apparel featuring Marlon Brando in his capacity as Vito Corleone are still popular in mainstream culture. The movie itself, however, clocks in at an astoundingly long 175 minutes. I’ll admit, I was fairly bored watching much of it. The movie progresses at a very slow speed, with little in the way of action to break the monotony, save a few dramatic assassinations peppered throughout.

Now let’s compare that to a modern cinema success story: Transformers. Michael Bay’s masterpiece, with 143 minutes to its name (not much less than The Godfather), grossed more than five times that of Francis Ford Coppola’s (even including inflation, the disparity is significant) – so clearly it enjoyed at the very least a similar measure of success. The content of the movie, however, is significantly different. When explosions and destruction aren’t punctuating the (frequent) action scenes, Megan Fox is being paraded around, all to the delight of the targeted teenage and twenties male audience. In what is essentially supposed to be a drama of Star Wars proportions, Transformers uses action and sex as a crutch to keep audiences interested.

This decline in attention span, however, is seen best with the advent of the internet. What has been widely diagnosed as the reason to the decline is the number of distractions at our disposal. In the 1850s, for example, there wasn’t a wide variety of readily available distractions, so audiences were eager to go out and watch Abraham Lincoln debate Stephen Douglas for hours. As can be seen with the UN summit in late September, however, political leaders have had to limit themselves to fifteen minute speeches, or else risk incurring boredom, as Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi discovered after delivering an hour and a half long speech during his fifteen minutes.

We have become tempered by three-minute long music videos with scenes that typically last no longer than a second, and multitask with social sites, instant messaging, and other distractions while at it. The radio and television blazed the trail through our attentions, but the internet highway has paved it, providing distractions that have blunted the once sharp edge for humanity’s ability to sit still and pay attention.

The average person reads for only 2.1 hours a month. That’s a frightening statistic, when reading is the basis of all knowledge not available from experience. I must confess, though, I have exceeded the 400 words that an average modern person will read, so I’ll give your mind leave to be distracted by the next thing.