... not any more apparently
That old put down " You have an attention span of a goldfish" apparently no longer carries much weight as these days the average human's attention span is now alarmingly less than that of a goldfish.
Last year Microsoft conducted a survey during which researchers surveyed 2,000 participants in Canada and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms. The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 13 seconds back in 2000 to currently a mere eight seconds. Goldfish, meanwhile, are believed to have an attention span of nine seconds.
For the goldfish amongst us take a glance at the following video for a summary of the report:
And if you can muster up a few more seconds here's something a little longer:
On the positive side, the report says our ability to multitask has drastically improved in the mobile age.
From the results gathered in the research Microsoft have theorised that the changes are a result of the brain’s ability to adapt and change itself over time. And a weaker attention span may be a side effect of evolving to a mobile Internet.
