Wednesday, January 12, 2011

American Attention Span

No news today, just a quick thought. It hasn't been properly thought about, but will be soon.

How long is the American attention span (for news issues) and how many items can it hold?
Supposedly, the human mind can focus on up to seven sensations/thoughts/etc at the same time. The American news attention span seems much shorter. Think about it. What's current now?

Haiti? Psh, that was so long ago. Like, a year.

Exactly a year ago.

Okay, so maybe it's ridiculous to think we could keep something at the forefront of our minds for a year, especially when it doesn't affect us. I mean, how often does the Middle East get front page news?

What about BP? April 2010. Eight months. Again, maybe a bit too long ago.

I can't even remember any issues between then and the TSA scandals. I'm sure there were some.

Speaking of which, when exactly was the whole backscatter thing? It's already died down.
November 2010? Oh hey, that was two months ago. Two months, and it's already gone out of the forefront of the media.

What about the Bush Era tax cuts living on? December? A month? Okay...

DADT? That's been argued about since before even Obama took office. It's abrogation (or the signature for that) was...at the end of 2010. Less than 14 days. Can't we as a country keep even that at the head of things?

START never even made it to the news, and the Dream Act not passing was up for about a day.

And this current controversy about Giffords? I give it until Sunday. Next week if the guy is caught.

(As for the how many, I think it's about three...but that's just a guess for now)

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