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The Attention Span of a Goldfish
Are our attention spans now shorter than a goldfish's?
Everyone knows our attention spans are getting shorter. It's just obvious. In the always-connected world of social media, smartphones and hyperlinks in the middle of everything you read, it's become that much harder to stay focused. And there are statistics too. They say that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to eight seconds now. That's less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish.
But the statistics are not all that they seem - and neither is the received wisdom about goldfish.
Producer/Presenter: Simon Maybin
(Image: Shutterstock/Goldfish)
Last on
Mon 13 Mar 201707:50GMT
BBC World Service East and Southern Africa & Europe and the Middle East only
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- Fri 10 Mar 201719:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Fri 10 Mar 201720:50GMTBBC World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Fri 10 Mar 201721:50GMTBBC World Service East Asia & South Asia only
- Mon 13 Mar 201702:50GMTBBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean
- Mon 13 Mar 201703:50GMTBBC World Service Online, Europe and the Middle East & UK DAB/Freeview only
- Mon 13 Mar 201704:50GMTBBC World Service East Asia & South Asia only
- Mon 13 Mar 201705:50GMTBBC World Service Australasia
- Mon 13 Mar 201707:50GMTBBC World Service East and Southern Africa & Europe and the Middle East only
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