2 minute read / Apr 4, 2024 /
This Message Will Self-Destruct in 33 Seconds
The average American attention span has fallen from 150 seconds in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 to 47 seconds in 2023 - a 5-6% annual rate of decline.
| Year | Avg American Attention Span (sec) | CAGR |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 150 | - |
| 2012 | 75 | -6% |
| 2023 | 47 | -5% |
How does this compare to these blog posts?
In 2013, the average reader dwelled on this site for 47 seconds.
Today, it’s 33 seconds, a 3.6% decline - which is a bit better ! but probably within the realm of statistical noise ¡
Over the past decade, the average word count per post on this site has fallen 40% from approximately 560 at the peak to approximately 350 today.
| Metric | Annual CAGR |
|---|---|
| Attention Span Change | -5% |
| Blog Dwell Time Change | -4% |
| Word Count Change | -4% |
So the deflation is consistent. We could argue the posts themselves are shorter, which reduces dwell time - but it’s the other way around.
Content on the internet has compressed : YouTube shorts & tweets come to mind. They provide a faster time to value/dopamine. Authors, rewarded for shorter content, mirror the rest of the web.
So, in ten years, when I update this data, expect it to be in a haiku like this one:
Attention span drops,
From one fifty to forty-seven,
Web’s brief dance evolves.
In the realm of blogs,
Seconds tick from forty-seven,
To thirty-three, soft fall.
Words on screen shrink too,
From five-sixty to three-fifty,
Echoes of the quick pulse.
Who said poetry is dead?