On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Kevin M.<[email protected]> wrote: > I can't speak to the specific cause, but I can attest to attention > spans growing shorter in children. As a teacher, it becomes more > apparent with each passing day. A few years back, the Sesame Workshop > proudly announced it was revamping Sesame Street to include extended > storylines and long form segments because their research proved that > attention spans in kids had grown by leaps and bounds. But, and I'm > not saying there is a direct causal link because I don't know, that > was before kids got into IMs, Twitters, YouTube, Facebook, texting, > etc. And yes, Sesame Street has been revamped again. Most segments are > now shorter than they were in the '70s and '80s. It is expected that > kids will not sit through an entire episode. > > As a teacher in a classroom, I can't show a video to illustrate a > point anymore. Remember all the Jacques Cousteau specials and the like > from your childhood, where you would simply watch and learn? Now, if I > want to show a video in class, I have to do one of two things. I must > either stop the video every five minutes or so to discuss what the > kids watched, or I have to give them a series of questions to answer > as they watch the video. Otherwise, and I am not exaggerating, at > least 90% of the kids in the room will not be able to follow along. > > As adults, I don't know if our attention spans have been affected, or > if they have, by what. But kids of today have greatly diminished > attention spans by comparison to even 10 years ago. I, too, haven't > seen specific evidence that points to anything, but I suspect some > combination of the food they eat and the amount of time they spend > using technology.
I am a teacher also (to somewhat older children) and have seen the same things and heard the same explanations. It is without a doubt true that people (of most ages) are less willing, and perhaps have less practice, sustaining attention than they used to. But this is different from saying that their underlying attention span is essentially shorter. Giving into this - pandering to it - is one cause of, not the optimum response to, the problem. Partly we all tend to overestimate how long attention spans were when we were younger; partly it is that young people live in a world where things happen faster, and so have less tolerance for waiting (when I was a kid, if I wanted to watch The Wizard of Oz, we had to wait a whole year until NBC decided to broadcast it again in living color (was that around Easter?). My kids can watch it whenever they want to. Technology may be part of the reason why younger people have trouble sustaining attention, or delaying gratification, but it has nothing to do with their ability to do so if given sufficient practice and incentive. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
