There is a rumor going around (I picked it up via Wikipedia’s entry on Microlearning) that the average human attention span is down from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.5 seconds in 2015.
This “finding” was originally amplified, from it’s Ground Zero courtesy of Microsoft Canada, in:
- Time Magazine (14 May 2015)
- The Telegraph (15 May 2015)
- The Guardian (17 May 2016)
- USA Today (13 January 2017)
- The New York Times (22 January 2016 (Firewall Alert))
The fact checking superhero, it must be said at the outset, was sponsored by the BBC on 10 March 2017. All hail Simon Maybin of the BBC World Service’s More or Less column.
It was also uncritically amplified by
- a member of Harvard University‘s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, in the Economics Department.
- a book published by Wiley Press entitled Brief: Making a Bigger Impact by Saying Less.
The Goldfish Exploit