More Attention Span, Less Self-Confidence

One of the worst parts of being a writer right now is having to constantly fight the attention span clock.

You have to be mindful of every second it takes for someone to read your material. The more you give to process, the less likely it’ll get processed. Potential distraction and boredom lurk in every moment.

Most of us writers have a lot to say – it’s a requirement of the gig. Not to mention that some of what we want to write about just isn’t simple enough to cover in 5-second-to-3-minute reads.

The things truly worth understanding take longer than that to explore. Nothing worth having or knowing comes easy.

But it is what it is, so we adapt.

… but this is one of the things that’s poisoning communication and shredding civilization. It’s a huge part of why we’re so on-edge and tribalistic.

If we can’t take the time to pay full, quality attention to something, we’re not going to meaningfully understand it. We’ll only get the bits & pieces soundbites, clipped video and other multi-second exposures reveal… which ain’t much, and ain’t enough.

Add to that we usually only pay attention to what fits with our narrow, feelings-charged worldview and our perspective gets even smaller.

What makes this attention-starved ignorance really dangerous, though, is that it’s coupled with an epidemic of over-confidence.

At the same time attention span and holistic understanding are at all-time lows, self-confidence in opinion and certainty of rightness are at all-time, nigh-narcissistic highs. Because feelings, regardless of the attention we haven’t paid or research we haven’t done, we somehow magically, emphatically believe ours is the right understanding – ultimate truth.

And it’s all capped with a passive-aggressive, faux-“tolerance” – “Look I’m totally open-minded and mature cuz I’m awesome… it’s just that ur wrong and stupid and ur thinking needs to change lol.”

😬

Yeah, no. Try again.