Attention Spans are Shrinking: How it Affects the Workplace and Marketing

It isn’t just your imagination. People’s attention spans really are shrinking. Scientifically measured data reveals that attention spans have been whittling away for at least two decades.

The Findings

Psychologist Gloria Mark has written a book on this subject called “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity.”

This book touches on Dr. Mark’s findings, which span decades of research into the subject. Mark’s team would record the amount of time people spent on one task, before switching to the next, and so on.

Dr. Mark explains, “So you‘re on a screen where you’re working in a Word doc. As soon as you get to that screen, we click start time. As soon as they turned away and checked the email, we clicked stop time for the Word document and start time for the email.”

Over time, the attention spans shrunk considerably. Mark goes on to recall, “Back in 2004, we found the average attention span on any screen to be two and a half minutes on average. Throughout the years, it became shorter. So around 2012, we found it to be 75 seconds.”

The number continued to decline as time progressed. “And then in the last five, six years,” continues Mark, “we found it to average about 47 seconds—and others have replicated this result within a few seconds. So it seems to be quite robust.”

So how does this affect the way we work?

When people multi-task they experience measurable stress. The faster attention shifts, the higher the stress and the more errors they make. Performance slows because there is a “switch cost” where you have to re-orient to the new activity.

Multi-tasking is actually a myth. While people can engage in two activities at once if one activity requires low focus (such as sweeping the floor while having a conversation with a person), in-depth thinking tasks can only be addressed one at a time. Switching back and forth between multiple “thinking” tasks hinders output in measurable ways.

How does this affect our personal lives?

This development isn’t just a result of employees trying to keep up with increasingly complex workplace demands—it’s penetrated our personal lives as well. Shorter attention spans are imbedded into how we consume information and entertainment at home and on the go. Studies reveal that our shorter attention spans are a key reason why people show an increased preference for short-form videos. In fact, the average person watches one hour and 16 minutes of short-form video per day (1).

This trend is seen in the rise of short-form video content on social media. However, it goes much deeper than that. Even traditional media content, such as television, is feeling the shift. Film shots are shrinking in accordance with people’s attention spans.

Take music videos, for instance. According to Dr. Mark, “They started out much longer. They now average about four seconds a shot length,” she says. “If you watch MTV music videos, they‘re much shorter. They’re only a couple of seconds. So we’ve become accustomed to seeing very fast shot lengths when we watch TV and film.”

As the public adjusts to shorter segments, it’s affecting what people watch and what kind of content creators produce. Research indicates a majority of consumers will only watch an entire video if it’s less than 60 seconds in length. 56% of videos created by businesses today are two minutes or less, and videos of 30-minutes or longer only have a 10% (and dropping) completion rate (2). YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels present short-form content in an endless scroll format that increases engagement and, frankly, addictiveness. In 2024, this “bite-sized” short-form video genre accounted for roughly 90% of all internet traffic (3).

The Impact of Mobile

The advent of the cell phone has impacted attention spans drastically. Now that people can consume content on the go, quick segments are more logical than in the by-gone era when media consumption primarily took place in-home and largely after the completion of daily tasks.

With mobile devices, people can be seen checking updates and consuming information at almost any time—at work, during breaks, at events, while commuting, and even within social groups. Who hasn’t seen a table of friends sitting together at a restaurant, each one staring at his own device? Furthermore, small cell phone screens are less than ideal for watching long videos, which tips the scales even further in favor of short-form content.

How does this affect marketing?

This developing trend is having a major impact on both the content we create for marketing, as well as the platforms through which our audiences view it. This affects the vast majority of business owners, as 82% identify video marketing as an important part of their strategy (4). Furthermore, 88% of the businesses who don’t use video say they plan to start using it in the next 12 months (5). This means 98% of businesses are either using or planning to use video within the year!

As marketers we must adjust our content to match the shorter attention spans of our target audiences. While there has always been a need to grab consumer’s attention quickly before they move on to something else, the window to do so has shortened to the point of barely being open.

Particularly if most consumers are unfamiliar with your product or company, making a quick impact is crucial. Short-form video is the preferred medium. Companies and marketers who succeed at sparking curiosity or emotional responses upfront are the ones whose content consumers stick around to watch. Humor can also be an effective tactic. Product teasers, influencer ads, and video testimonials are some of the formats that successful companies leverage.

The list of places in which consumers watch short-form video content is expanding. In 2023, Meta launched Facebook Reels to compete against TikTok and YouTube shorts. This is understandable considering that 71% of Gen Z spend more than three hours (!) watching online videos (6). No, that is not a typo.

Moving Forward

The data is clear: short-form video content is crucial in today’s marketing landscape. This isn’t just a passing trend, but rather a fundamental shift in how society as a whole consumes and interacts with information. Furthermore, the “shift to short” is growing stronger with each passing generation. As new technologies emerge, companies will need to remain nimble in order to remain relevant. This is why it is so important for business owners to understand and focus on short videos.

With skyrocketing engagement rates, higher ROI, and unmatched virality, today’s companies must prioritize short-form content. Find out how Ciniva can empower your business forward in this new era. Request a demo to see how our innovative video commerce solutions can transform your business and drive engagement. Remember, we were preparing your business for this shift more than two years ago: https://ciniva.com/notes/the-power-of-short-form-video-content-why-marketers-should-make-the-shift 

For an insightful look into how to repurpose your existing video content (which includes building short-form segments in part from your existing long-form content) be sure to read our blog post: Three Simple Ways to Repurpose Your Video Content – Ciniva Digital Notes

Sources:

1. https://khrisdigital.com/short-form-video-statistics/
2. VidYard
3. Short Form Video Statistics – AovUp (formerly Woosuite)
4. 6 Reasons Why Video Marketing is Essential for a Business
5. https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/
6. https://www.nosto.com/blog/short-form-video/