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I May Have Ruined My Mum’s Attention Span
Seeking entertainment, finding late-nights and misinformation.
My mum is a 60-plus-year-old retiree.
Digital minimalism came naturally to her. Having been around before the internet, smartphones, and personal computers, most of her life does not revolve around tech. She’s okay with it and often taunts that in her next life (if there’d be one) she’ll be a tech badarse. And she’s adorable.
The few technologies my mum uses serve only for her entertainment. Before now, she had no reason to seek digital entertainment. This was back when the whole family still lived together and my dad was still with us.
Things changed. Daddy died of Parkinson’s in 2018, and my siblings and I have moved out.
To complicate things for my mum, all these happened after we moved to a serene neighborhood where residents care more about minding their business than knowing the name of their next-door neighbor. Boredom kicks in now more than before, hence her need for digital fun.
She watches cable TV a lot. Long-form video content like home movies and the news were her favourites. She’s glued every night, before bed, and all through the weekend.
A few years ago, I came back from school and decided to add varieties to her digital kaleidoscope. I got her in on Facebook and TikTok and, by so doing, introduced her to a world of endless short-form video content.
Now she’s more into TikTok and Facebook videos than she is into the news and movies, so much so that renewing her cable TV subscription seems to never make it to her list of things-to-do these days.
The thought struck me one time, that maybe I just started a chain reaction that may lead to her attention span getting messed up.
Movies and the news are long-form content. They allow her to focus on a task for a long time. Social media videos are the opposite.
The case against short-form content
The science is clear on the impact of short-form content on our attention span.
It degrades it.
