Quotes & Sayings About Attention Span

This is the great luxury of not working: the moment you read a book that has nothing to do with work, you know you're really relaxed. And I have a sh*t attention span. I can't concentrate for more than five minutes. — Eddie Redmayne

Imagine what our culture would be like if Americans sold ideas, words, and books with the same creativity we use to sell designer jeans, shampoo, and rock stars. Why, we might end up with people whos attention span for the printed word is longer than the time it takes to read a T-shirt. — Jim Trelease

He said ... Everyone's attention span is so short. They'll be mad about something new today. — Jon Ronson

Never underestimate the short attention span of a satyr. — Jamie Wyman

Children from like 8 and even up to the college age - Spider-Man appeals to a fairly broad demographic but, like I said, a mean age probably of 12 is a good mark - they process information so quickly and it's not because of attention deficit or short attention span. — Thomas Haden Church

You don't pay attention man/that's why your money is the size of your attention span. — J Dilla

Everyone's attention span is getting shorter. As a result, everything - films, music, art - gets watered down and dumber. Every now and again, you get something great, but not often. — Kelis

In this age of micro-blogging and two second sound bites, almost no one has the attention span, or time, to read more than a few sentences. — Tim Frick

As a reader, I have a very short attention span and a low tolerance for boredom, and I find that comes in handy with my writing. If I get bored writing something, I pity the people who will then try to read it. — John Scalzi

If someone can watch an entire season of a TV series in one day, doesn't that show an incredible attention span? — Kevin Spacey

The whole bloody world's got a commitment problem.
It's the three-minute culture. It's a global attention-span deficit. — Helen Fielding

Mysteries are powerful, Cialdini says, because they create a need for closure. "You've heard of the famous Aha! experience, right?" he says. "Well, the Aha! experience is much more satisfying when it is preceded by the Huh? experience." By creating a mystery, the writer-astronomer made dust interesting. He sustained attention, not just for the span of a punch line but for the span of a twenty-page article dense with information on scientific theories and experimentation. — Chip Heath

I've got the attention span of a child. — Ricky Gervais

Of course that was before reality TV, Twitter, Twaddle, and the like managed to reduce the average attention span of most of the world's population to two minutes, wither our long-term memory to fourteen months, and convince us that the most admirable of all individuals are not the likes of George Washington, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Jonas Salk, Mother Teresa, and Nikola Tesla, but instead whatever celebrity just won Dancing with the Stars and whatever dancing cat just drew ten million hits for its YouTube video. — Dean Koontz

Pilots are so hard because you have to introduce all these characters, you have to hook an audience, and an audience has such a smaller attention span than maybe they used to have. — Max Greenfield

These days. Most of us have the attention span of a meth-addicted squirrel. — Kristen Lamb

Be more attentive to what successful people have to say about all the opportunity around you. Anything important - which takes only two minutes to point out - will exceed most people's attention span by at least a minute and a half. Learn to pay attention for two minutes at a time - and you will see more opportunity than you know what to do with. — Ernie J Zelinski

I have never been much at nonverbal communication. Additionally, I don't have much of an attention span, and what I lack in patience I make up for in ambivalence and an inability to sleep. — Carrie Fisher

Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multitasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed - some mechanism or myth that encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where "the long term" is measured at least in centuries. — Stewart Brand

An ambitious, paradoxical world we live in -
of short attention spans
paired with the massive fear
of being forgotten too soon. — Sreesha Divakaran

The most dangerous thing about an academic education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what's going on in front of me. — David Foster Wallace

I'm a product of the 1970s, so I have a short attention span. You know, I grew up on cartoons and half-hour shows. So the stories that I'm interested in grab my attention very quickly, and they have to keep my attention. — Robert Kurson

The average buyer in bookshop spends 8 seconds on the front cover and 15 seconds on the back cover before deciding whether to purchase the book or not. On average, he does not get past page 18. See? The odds are stacked against us writers! — Ashwin Sanghi

On every Bright Eyes record, there's some kind of sound collage that begins it. Some of them have dialogue, some don't. I like it because it can kind of slow down the attention span a bit. It's a way to draw you in to the rest of the record. — Conor Oberst

We live in a society that is based on 30-second sound bites. We have
technology that puts all of the information of humankind at our fingertips,
but we have the attention span of a three-year-old at a carnival
midway on the Fourth of July. We throw around a lot of words like
democracy, federal, republic, nationalist, socialist, liberal, and right-wing - but
do we really know what they mean? — Ziad K. Abdelnour

There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. This whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them. — Jerry Seinfeld

Dear Ms. Dunne,
I was hoping that you could come to the school to discuss Katie's rapidly deteriorating behavior in class. Her attention span is short and she distracts other students by her note-passing. How does Wednesday after school sound? You can reach me at the school. You know the number.
Ms. Casey

To Katie,
What do you mean your mum just laughed?
From Toby

Ahern, Cecelia (2005-02-01). Love, Rosie (p. 99). Hachette Books. Kindle Edition. — Cecelia Ahern

I was pretty anti-academic, and I wasn't much of a student. I had a really short attention span and did not get a lot out of high school academically. I think college was a little the same way. — Chris Crutcher

My laziness is really profound. I'm really interested in where it comes from - it almost feels chemical. And we've all got ADD now, short attention span and all that. — Hugh Grant

The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds. — William Zinsser

My attention span is very short. — Will.i.am

I didn't really want to be an actor when I was growing up - I wanted to be whatever I was reading about or seeing at the time. When I read The Firm I wanted to be a lawyer; when I saw Top Gun, I wanted to be a fighter pilot. So that's why acting probably turned out to be a good thing for me because I get to be people for five minutes or 90 minutes. I'd be curious to see if I had the attention span to be like those guys on 30 Rock and play the same character season after season, — Jason Sudeikis

Technology is killing us. We think it's helping us but it's killing us. Don't ask me why because I don't have the time or the attention span to complete that thought. Now let's all hold hands and draw spider monkeys. — Thom Yorke

A friend gave me a drug for attention deficit disorder, because he's afflicted, but I'm not. So what happened to me is I suddenly had an extra-long attention span. People would tell me a story, and it would end, and I'd get all mad. "Come on, man, there has to be more to that story." — Mitch Hedberg

You and I and everyone else have the attention span of gnats. And that means that saying or doing anything once simply doesn't work. — Gene Simmons

The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever you're trying to tell them. — Meg Rosoff

I don't go on the Internet. I never go on the Internet. I don't go on Twitter. I'm not on Facebook. I've seen friends go into dark, dark holes of sadness because of that. Frankly, I don't have the time or the attention span for it. — Amy Sherman-Palladino

As a person who has a pretty short attention span I think of music like that, completely. That's why I can quite happily change genres mid-song. — Thighpaulsandra

Drosophila," I said, remembering the word.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Why do girls always fall for guys with the at ention span of drosophila?"
"What?"
"Fruit flies. Guys with the attention span of fruit flies."
"Because they're hot?"
"This," I told her, "is not the time for being truthful. — Rachel Cohn

I hate tricks. At the first sign of a trick or gimmick in a piece of fiction, a cheap trick or even an elaborate trick, I tend to look for cover. Tricks are ultimately boring, and I get bored easily, which may go along with my not having much of an attention span. But extremely clever chi-chi writing, or just plain tomfoolery writing, puts me to sleep. Writers don't need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing- a sunset or an old shoe- in absolute and simple amazement. — Raymond Carver

Learning lines is hard for me because I have the attention span of a six year old. That's why being on planes all the time is so useful - I'm forced to learn out of boredom. — Eddie Redmayne

I think we have the attention span of a gnat. You know, with cell phones and Twitter. — Jeff Daniels

I realize I am contradictory: I have an independent filmmaker's sensibility and a Hollywood director's short-attention span. — Doug Liman

She's always getting into trouble because she gets bored really really easily. [ ... ]
My mum says it's because Celia has an attention span the size of a sesame seed.
Celia's mum says it's because Celia's identity is unfurling itself slowly, like a tulip bud, and it's a breathtakingly beautiful thing to see. — Jaclyn Moriarty

My attention span is very limited, and I watch just one or two movies a year. — Ashwin Sanghi

I'm not a long movie person. I have a very short attention span. If you give me a 90-minute movie, that's perfect. When it gets to be two hours, that's a little bit too long for me. — Courteney Cox

It is difficult to threaten someone who doesn't have the necessary attention span to register fear. — Rob Thurman

What we know for sure from our work and from others' is that mice have a life span of 1,000 days, dogs have 5,000 days, and we humans have 29,000 days. Recognizing that the duration is limited, and aging is inevitable, focus the attention on enhancing the quality of the days you have. — S. Jay Olshansky

Daemon had not stayed.
My smile slipped from my face.
He was standing by the window, his back to me. "I got bored."
"I wasn't even gone five minutes."
"I have a short attention span. — Jennifer L. Armentrout

I have an extraordinary attention span. I manage to juggle two or three different ideas at the same time, and that's probably, if I have a gift, that's probably the best gift that's given me. — Paul Newman

I think, first of all, you know, Washington has a bad habit of a very short attention span. — Claire McCaskill

The resource of generational history is accorded little attention our society, which seems ever more obsessed with making "new" and "better" synonymous. From my family I became aware of the importance of passing along wisdom from one generation to the next. Yet despite the increasing proliferation of digital recording and other communication technologies, we're passing on less knowledge today than our parents did through the oral tradition alone. We're drowning in photographs and videos, capturing every mundane moment of our birthdays, holidays, and vacations. Yet these can be no more than pleasant distraction, only scratching the surface of our real relationships. — Ralph Nader

He has the attention span of a lightning bolt. — Robert Redford

I'm not really one for reading books. I have a very poor attention span. I'd rather listen to music, play games or watch films on my iPad. — Olly Murs

I only took about five guitar lessons in my life from an actual teacher. I learned fast that that wasn't for me. I didn't have the attention span to learn that way. So I learned the basics from my dad, then just from playing on stage, and watching other guitar players. — Jason Aldean

Deborah did not seem quite as impressed as I was. She trailed along behind Matthews with a wicked scowl on her face, shoving at any reporter foolish enough to get in her way, and generally acting like she had just been indicted for waterboarding. I followed the happy little group through the crowd until Matthews reached the front door, where Mr. and Mrs. Aldovar were waiting to smother their wayward daughter with hugs and kisses and tears. It was an extremely touching scene, and Captain Matthews played it perfectly, as if he had been rehearsing for months. He stood beside the family group and beamed at them as the parents snuffled and Samantha scowled and finally, when he could sense that the reporters were reaching the end of their attention span, he stepped in front of them and held up a hand. Just — Jeff Lindsay

Storytelling
that's not the future. The future, I'm afraid, is flashes and impulses. It's mode up of moments and fragments, and stories won't survive. — Dexter Palmer

My secret is simple. I have a very short attention span, and writing lots of things fast appeases that very attention span. — Shiloh Walker

On average, around 500,000 people die on the planet every year as a result of intentional violence and homicide. These acts span domestic violence, war, terrorism, infanticide, gang violence, honor killings and state executions. Many of these deaths pass relatively unnoticed while some attract attention. — Chris Rhyss Edwards

I guess I have a short attention span! I'm interested in new worlds, new universes, new challenges. — Alfonso Cuaron

I go through the text making sure I haven't used any big words. If I find any fancy adjectives have crept in, I replace them with small words like 'nice' and 'big'. I've liked these words ever since I was told not to use them in English class at school. After that, I check that the sentences are short so as people won't get confused and I shorten all the chapters so they won't get bored. I can't read anything complicated these days, my attention span is too short. Everyone else probably feels the same. — Martin Millar

One of the great things about being an actor is it serves a short attention span, which is something I have. — Allison Mack

I don't have a good attention span and can't spend long in record stores or video shops or games emporiums without getting grumpy. — Beth Ditto

I bought a guitar CD-ROM because we had a new computer, but I had no attention span for that. I spent about three hours on it desperate to be brilliant. Eventually, I got some proper lessons. — James Bay

The imaginary child implied by the toys on exhibit in Hong Kong was impossible to reconcile with my actual child. I didn't think I'd like to meet the imaginary child they implied. That child was mad with contradictions. He was a machine-gun-toting, Chopin-playing psychopath with a sugar high and a short attention span. — Donovan Hohn

I used to play video games all the time, but now I don't because I don't have an attention span. — King Tuff

I have an attention span that's as long as it has to be. — Donald Trump

I try to read, but my attention span is so bad, and ever since Netflix was invented, that's all I do in my spare time, which is really bad, but it's like a chore to read for me. — Eliot Paulina Sumner

Romeo had the attention span of a slice of bread.
Which is none at all.
Every time I start to explain something, it's like not only his eyes glazed over, but his entire body. At one point, I wondered if it were possible for him to be asleep with his eyes open.
And God, he smelled good. — Cambria Hebert

I get into a tearing passion about something I know very little about, and when I learn more my passion ebbs away. — John Buchan

Civilization's shortening attention span is mismatched with the pace of environmental problems. — Stewart Brand

depression lowers attention span, tolerance for frustration, and memory. Behavior is affected by lowered motivation, loss of ability to experience pleasure, and fatigue. The body is affected by headaches, stomachaches, and muscle tension. Relationships are affected by a tendency to withdraw and become isolated with loneliness. — Archibald D. Hart

Films to the degree that they glorify mindlessness and short attention span they are bad, to the degree that they encourage empathy with people not like ourselves and encourage us to think about life, they are good. — Roger Ebert

Five houses?" Lothaire had sneered, cutting Trehan off. "You all live under one roof now. Mine. Because I'm the king of the castle." Then his red eyes had grown vacant, and he'd begun muttering about "Lizvetta's lingerie."
Trehan had been ... underwhelmed by the Enemy of Old's attention span. — Kresley Cole

The plot details of B movies are irrational: accept that people do things that are contradictory, against their own best interests, have short term aims & limited attention span, and do incredibly stupid things while things blow up. Apart from things blowing up, this is just like the music industry. — Robert Fripp

Are you saying I have a short attention span?" "Not at all. I'm saying there's a fire in you that drives everything you do, that makes you need to better the world and those you love. To stand up for those you can't. It's one of the wonderful things about you. — Richelle Mead

I would sit up on top of the woodpile playing and singing at the top of my lungs. Sometimes I would take a tobacco stake and stick it in the cracks between the boards on the front porch. A tin can on top of the tobacco stake turned it into a microphone, and the porch became my stage. I used to perform for anybody or anything I could get to watch. The younger kids left in my care would become the unwilling audience for my latest show. A two-year-old's attention span is not very long. So there I would be in the middle of my act, thinking I was really something, and my audience would start crawling away. I was so desperate to perform that on more than one occasion I sang for the chickens and the pigs and ducks. They didn't applaud much, but with the aid of a little corn, they could be counted on to hang around for a while. — Dolly Parton

A short attention span makes all of your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying. — Eckhart Tolle

I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span. — Charlie Munger

The mission of the press is to spread culture while destroying the attention span. — Karl Kraus

One of the most important lessons, perhaps, is the fact that SOFTWARE IS HARD. From now on I shall have significantly greater respect for every successful software tool that I encounter. During the past decade I was surprised to learn that the writing of programs for TeX and Metafont proved to be much more difficult than all the other things I had done (like proving theorems or writing books). The creation of good software demand a significiantly higher standard of accuracy than those other things do, and it requires a longer attention span than other intellectual tasks. — Donald Knuth

We don't really even know how the Internet and technology are changing us, or our brains and our attention span. — Nancy Jo Sales

My short attention span has allowed me a life of diversity in work and place. — Maira Kalman

Pat Moynihan could write books with one hand and legislate with the other. I can't; I have a short attention span. The slightest distraction would take me away from writing. — Barney Frank

Books are better than television, the internet, or the computer for educating and maintaining freedom.
Books matter because they state ideas and then attempt to thoroughly prove them. They have an advantage precisely because they slow down the process, allowing the reader to internalize, respond, react and transform. The ideas in books matter because time is taken to establish truth, and because the reader must take the time to consider each idea and either accept it or, if he rejects it, to think through sound reasons for doing so. A nation of people who write and read is a nation with the attention span to earn an education and free society if they choose. — Oliver DeMille

Why do girls always fall for guys with the attention span of drosophila? — Rachel Cohn

For me, whether it's in a book or on T.V., a recipe has to be simple. I have a short attention span, so to open a cookbook and see a recipe that goes on for three to four pages, well, I've lost interest. — Al Roker

I'm the perfect kind of personality for making YouTube videos. I deal in short attention span theater. I do wild things. — Steve-O

An exceedingly confident student would in theory make a terrible student. Why would he take school seriously when he feels that he can outwit his teachers? — Criss Jami

But I quite like that the public has a very short attention span. If I haven't been on telly for a little bit, I can sense it. People don't take as much notice of you, it's really quite palpable. — Sophie Ellis-Bextor

In 2000, Microsoft Canada reported that the average human had an attention span of twelve seconds; by 2013 that number had fallen to eight seconds. (According to Microsoft, a goldfish, by comparison, has an average attention span of nine seconds.) — Adam Alter

The addictive nature of Web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish. — Sally Hogshead

Eden," Cyrus snapped bringing her back to the present. "I have a sword pointed at you. Will you please focus — Samantha Young

Everyone's attention span these days is limited to how long it takes to flick the iPod wheel on to the next song. — Mat McNerney

I'd have a longer attention span if there weren't so many shiny things. — Darynda Jones

I've heard people say that [I have a short attention span]. I don't feel I do, because when I'm interested in something I'll stay in focus as long as it is necessary ... If you get off on something I'm not very interested in, it's very easy for me to block it out. It's easy for me to block things out. — Dan Quayle

Being close to nature, in general, helps boost a child's attention span. — Richard Louv

Dogs have such a limited lifespan to teach us about friendship and loyalty...perhaps they know we have a short span of attention. — Dan Cohen

I sometimes get in the car [and] jump all around hunting for a sample, and then I can get really annoying if anyone's in the car with me. But if I'm actually listening to music, I have a pretty solid attention span. — Girl Talk

Why did the two most important things in her life have to require her attention at exactly the same time? — Rachel Spangler