Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain

Re:Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain by jswinghammer on Monday November 16, 2009 @09:57AM (#944498)

I think people have longer attention spans now. Watch "The Wire" which is by any definition complicated and requiring a huge attention span. Now compare it to "Dallas" which at the time was considered to be too complicated for many people to follow. "The Wire" is certainly far more complicated and hard to follow. I recall watching a whole season and not knowing the names of some major characters because I just didn't have the space to store that information.

These sort of articles get written all the time too. It just seems like it's trying to appeal to an older audience who doesn't understand new technology. I'd imagine more and more newspaper readers are falling into this category.

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Re:Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain by GHFigs on Monday November 16, 2009 @02:58PM (#945160)

"The Wire", as a premium cable drama, also had a far smaller audience than "Dallas", a broadcast soap opera.

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Re:Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain by gojomo on Monday November 16, 2009 @01:03PM (#944888)

I think you're confusing two different (albeit related) axes.

TV is more complex because attention spans are shorter: they need to pack more twists (and more, shorter scenes) into the same amount of time to keep the attention-addled from switching channels.

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Re:Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain by jswinghammer on Monday November 16, 2009 @01:24PM (#944941)

I don't see more twists these days in the shows I'm talking about. I see shows dumping tons of information on you and making you deal with it and store it in order to keep up. Have you watched "Lost" or "The Wire" or "The Sopranos"?

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Re:Attention loss feared as high-tech rewires brain by gojomo on Monday November 16, 2009 @02:12PM (#945047)

Yes "Lost", a little "The Wire", yes "The Sopranos".

If the info is essential to "keep up" -- that is, it wasn't completely predicted by the earlier trajectory of the show, and it's not easily ignorable as subsidiary to the main plot -- then it is a "twist", in my meaning.

The shows you mention use multiple overlapping story arcs -- some for just the current show, some for several episodes, some for the season, some for the entire run -- in order to fight short attention spans. There's something for everyone, including lots of short cuts between simultaneous (or flashback) story lines, to keep the pace of "reveals" sufficient for even fidgety, clicker-happy viewers.

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