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Have attention spans been declining?

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Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#271

Post by lmm »

Tenoke wrote: post #89
bizzleDawg wrote: post #21

I may be reading this incorrectly, but in the article, the 65% appears to be authors confidence in the statement that attention spans appear to be declining, as denoted by the sub-script. Whereas in the HN title it reads as if it's saying a "65% decline in attention span". Various other assertions in the post also have sub-script confidences associated e.g. "my guess: yes90%". I could totally believe that there has b…

It would be nice if HN titles actually had to match submission titles.

It would be nice if they either did or didn't. The current system where submitters are encouraged to carefully choose a title and moderators are encouraged to stomp on it is the worst of both worlds.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#274

Post by Karrot_Kream »

cwkoss wrote: post #170
deathanatos wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see recipes Tiktoks get readily debunked in longer-form content, such as by channels like "How To Cook That"¹; the Tiktoks amount to little more than content farming. What real information might be present is drowned out by fakes and bad advice that exist for no other reason than to soak up eyeballs. I get far more out of longer-form videos, IMO. (And yes, the bloated recipe blogspam is also a form that is rapidly…

Huh, the two recipes I tried came out great. Any examples of fake tiktok recipes? All the top "How To Cook That" debunking videos seem to be about other youtube videos or just weird food videos that aren't recipes.

I follow some YouTubers that try to recreate TikTok recipes and most of them come out just fine. If you're an experienced cook, it's really easy to judge whether a recipe is gonna be decent or not.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#277

Post by Tagbert »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #162
Night_Thastus wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some good reasons this isn't the case. Often the submission title itself has something wrong in it, or is click-bait-y, or just needs some pointless fat trimmed from it to get to the point. It's definitely not black and white.

But if the source can't get the title right in a clean and objective sort or way, isn't that a signal for "there's got to be a better source"? For example, how many times have we've seen a click-bait-y title followed by content or narrative reflective of that mindset?

The actual articles are often not as clickbaity as the titles. Also, sometimes there is no alternate source.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#278

Post by djangelic »

ethanbond wrote: post #268
makeitdouble wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> reading books This rhetoric is partly why reading gets such a bad rap. So many people put "reading books" on a pedestal, and cite random educational studies on how the mere act of reading stimulates the brain and is beneficial in itself. But 90% of the books in this world are fucking boring to downright garbage and not worth reading for most people. Telling people to read "books" is as helpful as advising suburban…

They should definitely read whatever interests them so when they want to acquire useful knowledge (like what to do when the obvious brake cable fix doesn’t work), they have access to tons and tons of written material on that topic. It’s odd how you’re acting like you’re making an argument against the general imperative to read books, but your examples are people being requested to read specific books which may or may…

I agree with what you are saying. Much like a muscle, when you work out, you're not lifting weights so you can lift more weights later.

Your general strength is higher, so most physical tasks are easier. Same for reading, if you practice reading books and enjoy looking at the written word, then reading developer documentation doesn't seem as intimidating which opens more doors for you.

Re: Have attention spans been declining?

#279

Post by Sujeto »

I think I just know what the thing is going to be about. I just need to read a headline. If I think there's more to it I force myself to read a bit. Something that comes with repeating patterns over and over again for decades.
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