News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65%. Parent comment

Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by n0on3 on Monday July 24, 2023 @03:53PM (#36853360)
(I'm not sure if you were joking or not and I know it's probably not in the same spirit you intended it here / a bit OT but...) I've been using literally that exact expression for a while to describe the situation in which, during somewhat complex discussions within a group, in order to not be perceived as jerks participants are forced to follow an unnecessarily long, repetitive, trivial and most often also completely pointless "line of reasoning" just to have their own attention completely derailed from any productive/actually-interesting argument anyone was trying to make, often ultimately resulting in giving up because recalling those lost mental threads is by then even more difficult and there is only so much mental energy (for you and collectively) to dedicate to that discussion.

Just saying, imho it's already a thing (with different incarnations in different contexts).

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by episiarch on Monday July 24, 2023 @04:05PM (#36853475)
I didn't even have the attention span to unpack your first sentence.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by AussieWog93 on Monday July 24, 2023 @05:51PM (#36854730)
I got what they were saying...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by cafeinux on Monday July 24, 2023 @06:20PM (#36855043)
They said: When many words said, no listen more, so say "attention span overflow" instead of yawn.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by Nick87633 on Monday July 24, 2023 @09:45PM (#36856824)
Reordering and paraphrasing what they actually wrote:

I've been using that expression when giving up on participating during discussions.

Other people's line of reasoning are unnecessarily long, repetitive, trivial and most often also completely pointless. This derails my own productive/actually-interesting argument because I only have so much mental energy.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by lostlogin on Monday July 24, 2023 @04:21PM (#36853677)
Was this a joke? The mega sentence would seem to be perfect example of your point.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by progmetaldev on Monday July 24, 2023 @06:57PM (#36855402)
This is definitely a thing, but at least in my experience, it is also a thing that narcissists do. They can dig up emails and examples from the dark caverns where you were just having a water cooler chat, and they somehow took it as very serious and something you should have meant to defend if it left your lips.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Have Attention Spans Been Declining? – Yes, 65% by justinclift on Monday July 24, 2023 @11:08PM (#36857369)
Attention span overflow. ;)
[ Parent | on HN ]