Attention Span

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I don't often contribute to the films threads (which are multiplying crazily I notice) because I don't like having to sit and watch something for 2 hours, because my attention span is dead low. So pop and the internet are perfect for me. Does anyone else feel like this, and are there people with the opposite problem - they find the 'zapping' characteristic of modern popculture horrible and offputting and confusing and prefer a contemplative mode of consumption?

― Tom, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Absolutely Tom. I was saying this last week on some other thread that the thought of sitting through a film is not attractive to me. Even if I'm really enjoying a film I always find myself shuffling around and looking forward to the end. Music is different for me, I can keep listening to stuff until I've made up my mind about it. Also I think films are so anti-social, compared to music which you can play while talking, or whatever else.

― Ronan, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I enjoy both, really. I love that mad collage of modern culture, but I love sinking into long things.

― Kodanshi, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

With you on the film thing, Tom. I don't even bother going into video shops anymore, I just think, "I want to see this but I can't contemplate sitting in one spot for 90 minutes".

― dave q, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Should this thread be retitled "De-worming: Classic or dud". Me, I'm a film boy through and through.

― Pete, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I often find myself trying to do three things at once like watching TV whilst listening to my discman and trying to read. Films in teh cinema are easy to sit through, as you have to focus on the screen. So, I think my attention span is quite good. Sorry, what was the question again?

― jel, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

There are two theaters in Edmonton that have these wide balconies. We go to the far left , where there is at least a meter between us and the edge said balcony. There we sit in the comfortable velveteen chairs and await the Orphic miracle . The problem is how uncomfortable modern theaters are. They are loud and the seats are too close together. Its all cold commerce nothing cinematic about it.

― anthony, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Oh and at home on Cable or the Videos i am on the computer multitaskign so no attention span there

― anthony, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I have a really long attenti-----

― Kodanshi, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

It's a late nineties-21st century thing, I reckon. There's too much choice so you try to do everything at once; and if you do actually settle down with a book or a film or whatever, and resolve to focus on just that one thing, the experience is always marred by the sneaking suspicion that you're missing out on something more worthwhile/fun/whatever.

― Slothrop, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Yeah films are too long for me. Even most TV shows are too long for me. I'm always whining, "I'm bored." Sometimes someone will say, "If you're bored, it's because you are boring." That's cool 'cause I can say, "No, if I'm bored it's 'cause you are boring." I am boring tho'. If you come round to my house I will just sit there saying as little as possible & waiting for you to go away.
Sorry, I wandered off the topic didn't I.

― duane, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

A lot of the time films are too long - went to see Moulin Rouge today (very very good and bad at the same time, btw) and was shuffling about and having awareness of the time rolling on etc. However, sometimes I can sit and become engrossed in a film, unfortunately I probably have to be sitting in a comfy bed to do it. Never mind films though, I get fidgety through albums as well, anything over about 50 minutes and I will get tremendously bored. Anyone else?

― Bill, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

But how can you get unsettled after 90 minutes when reading books often takes a lot longer? ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Ned - you can read books in stages, though.

― Bill, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

You can get up anytime you want with a book, and you rarely have to deal with people taller than you standing between you and the pages, and you can bring your own food into the room where you read the book and sit where you like as long as its in your house, and you don't have to buy tickets to read your own book. You can finish a book when you're drunk and pick it up the next night trying to find where you are and then remember you finished it and have nothing to read.

― Ronan, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I go through periods where I will watch about five or six movies a week. With videos, I will usually have a break in the middle of the film. In cinema of course not because we are forced to watch the film from start to finish.
Apparently the youth of today has a very short attention span. But this is not a bad thing since we are now capable of multi-tasking.

― nathalie, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

To Bill and Ronan -- y'all can do those things with DVDs as well. I should note that these days I avoid theaters anyway -- in fact, for the life of me I can't remember the last film I saw in one. *thinks* Haven't seen one this year, I know, and the only one on my 'to watch' list is _The Lord of The Rings_.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I used to think I had attention span as close to zero as you can get without forgetting your own name. Then I [tried to] watch one of those MTV20 documentaries they were showing in the middle of the night, and they cut between talking heads about 5 times a second, like literally sometimes one word per person, and I just couldn't cope. "Hey, I was watching that."

I realised the other night that sitting down to watch 45 minutes of Buffy (no adverts) was the longest I'd spent doing one thing for ages, at least while at home. But I do enjoy the breaks from overstimulation (My afternoon = TV + Stereo + Computer + MP3s on computer + actually doing stuff).

― Graham, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Books are the only things I can pay attention to without trying to do something else, and I can't sit down and read for six hours at a time like I could a few years ago. One or two hours is pushing it. The only TV shows I can watch are sitcoms because I can divide my attention, not listen, and still not miss anything thought-provoking and interesting. I rarely like long songs, although I'm good with long albums. It's pathetic.

― maria, Monday, 10 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

three years pass...

i am finding it harder to get through movies in one sitting. dvd's are part of the blame. crap movies too

― kephm, Wednesday, 6 October 2004 15:43 (twenty-one years ago)

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