Are Attention Spans Getting Shorter? A New Study Says “No”

Attention spans are nosediving in our modern society and it’s no surprise that technology and social media are most often given the blame for this. But are attention spans getting shorter for everyone? Maybe not. A new study by Brainscape, which analyzed their users study habits, has revealed that students’ attention spans are actually getting longer while studying. Yes, you read that right. In a world of shrinking attention spans, Brainscape users study sessions are getting longer, which means their attention spans are actually growing.

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Brainscape used the length of study sessions as a relative measure of attention span. They compare their users’ sessions with the average number of minutes studies indicate the general public can focus and, as you can see, with each year attention spans grow. By 2024, students were actively studying for 5 minutes more per session than they were in 2015. While this number is impressive in its own right, users are usually completing several sessions a day, this means that they are studying a LOT more than they were 10 years ago.

For the general public, however, attention spans are assuredly still shrinking. To keep people’s attention, movie scenes are now shorter than they’ve ever been (even though the movies themselves are longer), and websites like TikTok, which is famous for their super-short attention span-friendly videos, is exploding in popularity. While TikTok is believed to be popular because of shorter attention spans, some believe that TikTok itself is helping to make those short attention spans even shorter.

It’s unclear if attention spans will ever get back to the level they were once at (it seems unlikely at this point), so it will be interesting to see how this problem will develop into the future.