Have you noticed we’re living in a world of short attention spans and constant distractions? But maybe you were busy checking email or Facebook and didn’t notice.
Distraction and the pull of novelty are so rampant now that a recent Microsoft study found people have an average attention span of 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in the early 2000s when cell phones first began absorbing a tidy percentage of our attentional resources.
While our 21st century brains are becoming more and more are addicted to novelty and distraction, our yearning for the things that are familiar and predictable has grown as well. A recognizable world is a safe world, and familiar situations provide a sense of security. Continue reading →