Is anyone really paying attention?
If you haven’t figured this out by now: I really enjoy blogging!
It’s a freeing form of expression and hopefully entertains and stimulates thought and discussion. I too read the blogs of others and always enjoy passing on things I feel are worthwhile.
Most folks know that I work in the Christian music business. Being an artist once upon a time gives me a bit different perspective on marketing. Obviously, we entered into a digital revolution about 9 years ago that has changed EVERYTHING! Traditional music sales have plummeted while other forms of entertainment (such as video games & personal computers) have experienced rapid growth. I think the problem is that the music industry was slow to respond to the changing culture of its core consumers…and in turn has entered a state of panic and survival. Face it, the modern attention span has shrunk. People get bored easily and want to move onto the “next thrill”. If you are not responding to the cultural changes, you are going to be left behind. I can’t recall where I heard this phrase but I’ve held it deep for a few years: “Change is inevitable. You can embrace it, and learn how to benefit from it, or you will get run over by it.”
I think in the digital age, it’s essential to embrace change. In my field of work, it’s not a choice anymore. In fact, if that mentality was adopted sooner, the thousands of music industry employees who have been layed off the past few years might still have jobs.
I see parallels in other arenas. Take the church for example. Have you noticed something missing? I have, it’s those in the 19-30 age groups. Why? Many reasons I’m sure, but I think a large one is that church culture didn’t grow in line with the culture outside of the church.
I think a great example of a church who is meeting cultural needs is Granger Community Church in Northern Indiana. They don’t compromise Truth, the atmosphere doesn’t feel like a heavily edited version of real life, they seem to value people over tradition…and guess what? There is no shortage of the 19-30 demographic. Why? Could it be that they responded to cultural change and altered their approach so that they wouldn’t lose generations to come? We need to realize that if we don’t reach future generations, then the church will eventually be empty. People will view church as irrelevant, and in turn will likely project those feelings onto God.
Okay, back on track. I wanted to pass on this excerpt from an article I read about the modern attention span. There’s some good info here….read on!
Peace-
jamie
The part of your brain located between the medulla oblongata and the midbrain is something called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is something like a filter between your conscious and subconscious. It’s involved in primitive functions like the ability to be awake or asleep, and the ability to direct attention toward certain stimuli.
“The job of the RAS is to filter and screen all incoming stimuli and ‘decide’ which stimuli should merit the attention of the conscious,” writes Dr. Kathie Nunley. There is a hierarchy at play that determines what our brains decide to pay attention to. Physical needs come first, but after that our brains tend to gravitate toward novel experiences. Our shortened attention spans can be blamed on the heightened pace at which we encounter these novel experiences in today’s media saturated world.
“At one time a young child could master or learn his surroundings and they remained relatively unchanged. A toy or two, a dozen people, a home sparsely decorated. Even the world outside the home had relatively limited novelty to offer after the first few years of ones’ life. This allowed the RAS and attention to be drawn to other things, primarily self-made choices and more complex types of thinking and learning of abstract concepts,” says Nunley.
Today, though, television, the Internet, and other external stimuli “have trained our minds to perceive and interpret quickly and be ready to accept the next presentation.” That’s why we have trouble reading long articles — our brains are ready to jump to the next stimuli before we’ve fully absorbed the first.
(Note, newer research has presented more complex models of how we pay attention to things, but they’re really beyond the scope of this blog post.)
