Your short attention span might be contributing to political divide

in short...

• Social media companies have it in their interests to grab your attention

• This, combined with our brains being bombarded with the information on the Internet, makes our attention spans shorter

• Our shorter attention spans and expectations of excitement motivate news companies to produce less politically neutral, fact-based stories, because opinionated articles are what get views, and in turn make ad money

• The readers of these major news outlets are more likely to have stronger and less compromising political views because of this

• To have more accurate and big-picture information, get your news from various sources, check journalists' motives for writing opinionated content, and always fact-check your news

• Dig deeper into the causes for this phenomenon below

intro

We all like social media. Endless gratification, endless streams of entertainment (at least while the internet connection lasts).

You probably don't love divide, especially if you live in a democratic country; in a true democracy, people are supposed to – in theory – work together to build a more fair society where everyone gets a say. Granted, America's the example I'm going to use today and America's not considered a full democracy, but still. They have a fairly people-oriented basic constitution.

Now consider the past few years in American politics. Even if you were too young to remember anything before the strange period of extremism and divide we see today, you've likely heard adults surprised and appalled at everything happening in the White House, at political debates, and on the news. While arguably American politics has always been a bit raucous, with its two-party system and whatnot, in the past four years or so we've seen Trump rise to power and the political climate of the USA get so strange that some have called it a major player in a third wave of authoritarianism. So, how did we get here? It has a lot to do with your phone.

I'll start by saying that, in case you haven't noticed, there are a huge number of reasons why the United States needs a reality check right now. Their border policies are questionable, climate change discussions are basically nonexistent, and an ethical healthcare system is the subject of heated debate. Possible foreign interference with the 2016 election and shady influence of corporations on right-wing lawmakers only fuel the nation's internal and external conflicts. So, misrepresentation of in news and the media is definitely not the only thing causing this polarization. But at a grassroots level, evidence shows it is dividing people.

what's happening?

Have you ever read a statistic warning you about how people's attention spans were now shorter than goldfishes'? Well, they were right. The almost limitless amount of new information and interchangeable entertainment available to us on the Internet means that our minds are quickly getting used to clicking away from content in a matter of seconds. Ad-funded social media companies compete for your attention, making their content and marketing more eye-catching every day. Your brain takes rapid dumps of information, from a Wikipedia page to an online ad to your Instagram feed and this website itself, and adapts its processes to deal with it. This means a shorter attention span to intake info more quickly. Your brain loses interest after eight seconds, and gets used to outlandish and dramatic content. So, what happens when this 21st-century brain encounters political stories?

In short, it's drawn to those stories which cause the same quick-fire excitement in the brain as social media posts do. With most news being found online, it's easy for us to click out of a story that doesn't really capture our restless attention. We also tend to only read stories with dramatic headlines. This put pressure on journalists and other creators to put out more sensationalist content – three quarters of people is journalism report feeling the need to create more dramatic headlines. One response to this may be, "What's the problem with a bit of drama in the headlines, if the facts in the articles are the same?". This response may be harmless, until we start talking about politics.

Be honest with yourself: Are you more likely to click on a news story highlighting a controversial political opinion, or one covering the full transcript of a small meeting between two diplomats? You likely chose the first. If you chose the second, good for you.

This example shows how sensationalist news is attractive to people, by nature. One example of overdramatized stories are tabloids, playing to readers' emotions – rather than their rational brains – by displaying headlines that boast info about scandals and celebrities in tears. Their words grab readers' attention with appeals to feeling almost completely erasing logic from the picture. Tabloids prioritize quick reactions. Because of that, they focus on drama, whether that drama is true or not.

While tabloids may be an extreme example of sensationalist news, the principles that they follow can be seen elsewhere, too. With the rise in attention-grabbing tactics by social media companies, there has also been pressure on journalists to churn out more polarized stories, because they're what sells. Neutral, fact-based reporting is in decline. This pressure is also felt by other for-profit online platforms – YouTube in particular has some pretty questionable algorithms.

Does this mean we should stop paying attention to the news? Of course not. In the age of globalization, information is essential. And there are many news sources, like the New York Times and Reuters which still mostly promote fact-based reporting. This article is a warning to take each article you read with a grain of salt, to think about motives for controversial political articles, and to always do your research.

Photo from The Atlantic: America is Now the Divided Republic the Framers Feared

info sources

• VentureBeat – https://venturebeat.com/2016/12/04/our-8-second-attention-span-and-the-future-of-news-media/

• The Guardian – https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/16/got-a-minute-global-attention-span-is-narrowing-study-reveals#:~:text=It's%20just%20as%20you%20suspected,is%20presented%20to%20the%20public.