We are regularly bombarded with information about a steep drop in attention spans. Based on its own data in 2015, Microsoft reported that the average attention span had dropped from about 12 seconds for millennials to eight seconds for gen Z.
And as the new Premier League season kicked off, UEFA introduced a new “eight seconds rule” stating a goalkeeper cannot hold the ball for more than eight seconds or the opposing team wins a corner kick. Coincidence? The rule was introduced to avoid time wasting. It may be that the mean length of attention needed to kick the ball is on average eight seconds. And perhaps this is also how long viewers can pay attention when nothing’s happening.
But how does attention really work? How can we improve it?
