A new study from Microsoft found our memories are actually worse than that of a goldfish.
According to Microsoft Canada, the average human attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. In 2013, it was eight seconds.
The attention span of a goldfish? Nine seconds.
The short attention span is the fault of man-made machines - technology.
The study broke attention span down into three categories: Sustained, which is prolonged focus, Selective, which is avoiding distraction and Alternating, which is switching between different tasks.
The first part of the study was a survey of 2,000 Canadians, the next part was neurological research with 112 Canadian participants.
It found four top factors that impact attention: Media consumption, social media usage, technology adoption rate and multi-screening behavior.
No surprise, long term focus "erodes" (that's their word, not ours) with the more screen-time and social media usage.
But there could be a silver lining in all of this. Something we humans have that goldfish don't.
Our brains can produce bursts. Neurological readings produced during the study found higher usage of social media increased "short bursts of high attention." Kind of like a super ultra-focus power that only comes in short waves.
The study found that overall, "digital lifestyles have a negative impact on prolonged focus."
The study did find those with "digital lifestyles," are better at processing information at once.
Read more at newsy.com.
