Why is our attention-span declining? || Acharya Prashant

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: 14.03.23, DU (Online), Greater Noida  Context: ~ Why social media influencers are so rich? ~ How to not be affected by social media? ~ Why do social media influencers affect us? ~ How useful is our education?   Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant #socialinfluencer #socialmedia

Transcript

00:00 Does the person you are with encourage you to read?

00:05 You have to ask, what does he bring for me?

00:09 Roses or books?

00:10 If someone has a stake in making you better,

00:14 that person will push you towards books.

00:16 Books are what we all need.

00:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:24 So good afternoon, sir.

00:36 My question is, nowadays we use YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels,

00:41 and other such short video platforms,

00:44 and they are really shortening our attention span.

00:47 So my question is, how can we use technology and media in such a way

00:51 that it does not affect our attention span,

00:54 and what are some ways to maximize it?

00:56 Thank you, sir.

00:58 You see, it is primarily not about the span of attention.

01:15 The important thing is not really for how long

01:21 you can hold your attention on an object.

01:25 The important thing is, what is the quality of the object

01:33 you are attending to?

01:34 And the nature of human consciousness

01:42 is such that only very specific type of objects

01:52 can really hold your attention for long.

01:55 Let me go a little deeper into it.

02:00 You see, our mind, our consciousness,

02:04 is constantly searching for something.

02:12 Man is the name of a lifelong craving.

02:17 We are continuously a longing.

02:22 And the world is full of infinite objects,

02:30 and we do not know those objects.

02:33 Therefore, we keep approaching those objects one

02:38 after the other, incessantly, all our life, in the hope

02:44 that our internal longing will come to rest

02:51 through one of those objects.

02:52 That's why we are constantly restless.

02:57 That's why we are constantly trying, experimenting,

03:03 knocking at one door after the other.

03:05 Getting it?

03:10 Now, that is the reason why the short format, the short video

03:15 format, in social media has been inevitable.

03:25 And since it has arrived over the last few years,

03:28 it has been more successful than the longer formats.

03:34 Because the audience, without even knowing it

03:38 in an unconscious way, is looking

03:40 for something extraordinary.

03:45 Now, if you give them a 30-minute piece to watch,

03:51 by the second or third minute, it

03:52 is anyway clear that the thing that you are looking for

03:57 is not going to be found in that long video.

04:02 So after the third minute, the audience will drop out.

04:05 After the third minute, the audience will anyway drop out.

04:11 Because it has become clear that the video is not

04:15 what your deepest self wanted.

04:17 So how do the video makers, how do the so-called content

04:26 creators cope with this?

04:30 They said, we know that we cannot hold the audience anyway

04:34 for more than three minutes.

04:39 So we will give them just one minute of content.

04:41 And then the danger of the audience running away reduces.

04:49 And then the proportion of the video that has been watched

04:54 improves.

04:55 Because if you see, on an average,

04:56 if people are watching three minutes out of 30-minute

04:59 content, that is just 10%.

05:01 The algorithm will record that the average duration viewed

05:11 is just 10% of the video length.

05:15 Whereas if you serve them just a 50-second thing,

05:19 the audience will watch it for 30, 40 seconds

05:23 before they can make up their mind to drop out.

05:27 Even if you discover that the video is trash,

05:31 still you would have spent a few seconds on the video--

05:34 10, 20, 30 seconds, something.

05:37 So even if you spend 15 seconds on a 45-second shot or reel

05:44 or something, you have still watched

05:48 33% of the video length.

05:51 Now this 33% is far better than the 10%

05:54 that you watch on the long video.

05:56 So this little thing gets more favorably

06:00 ranked on the YouTube or Instagram algorithm.

06:06 Do you see the fundamental reason?

06:07 The fundamental reason is everybody,

06:10 be it the long video creator, the short video creator,

06:12 the movie maker, the Netflix maker--

06:16 does not matter who he is--

06:18 everybody knows that the content that you are serving

06:21 does not have that touch of eternity in it.

06:28 It does not have that all-essential quality in it

06:34 that can simply bind the viewer to the screen.

06:42 So people are trying all kinds of tricks.

06:46 They have to try these tricks because they are finding

06:50 themselves unable to address the central problem.

06:54 And the central problem, as I mentioned right

06:57 in the first sentence today, is not the length

07:02 of the attention span.

07:04 The central problem is the quality of the object

07:08 you are serving to your audience.

07:12 Is the content worth it?

07:15 If the content is worth it, then people

07:17 can watch even for one hour, two hours.

07:20 And any length does not matter.

07:25 The epics have been so long-lasting.

07:28 And do you know the number of verses they contain?

07:32 The number of verses run into scores of thousands--

07:37 10,000 verses, 20,000 verses, 40,000 verses,

07:40 more than a lakh verses.

07:45 And yet they have been eternal and immortal.

07:47 If you talk of the Vedas, the Rig Veda itself

07:54 has 10,000 verses.

07:58 Or if you go to Homer and talk of Iliad and Odyssey,

08:01 again there the length of the work is so daunting.

08:08 But still, it has been with the people

08:11 and they have just loved it.

08:15 So it's not that people are afraid of length, really.

08:20 People are just fed up of trash.

08:21 Trash.

08:26 And trash does not necessarily refer to production values.

08:31 It does not really refer to how attractively, how lucratively

08:39 you have packaged the whole thing.

08:43 It refers to what is inside the package.

08:47 It is the stuff that is inside the package that's

08:51 what I'm referring to as trash.

08:54 What is the message you are delivering?

08:56 What is the insight you are providing through your video?

09:00 Is there something in the video that

09:04 will give some relief to my otherwise tormented life?

09:10 Be it a youngster, a man, a woman, a professional,

09:14 a student, an old man, a Hindu, a Muslim, a rich man,

09:22 somebody looking for a job.

09:23 It does not matter.

09:29 We all are missing something very essential in our life.

09:32 Now is your video or your story or whatever

09:35 you have as an artist, is that able to provide me

09:42 something that will fill up the hollow here in my chest?

09:47 At the center of my existence is a big void.

09:51 And it pains.

09:53 It pains incessantly.

09:57 If you are a video creator, you are an artist.

10:00 If you're a painter or a storyteller, you're an artist.

10:04 Do you have it in you?

10:06 Does your art contain that beauty, that truth,

10:13 that will bring some succor to my charred life,

10:22 a few drops of relief to my parched existence?

10:26 So that's the problem.

10:33 And if you don't solve that problem,

10:36 you'll find even one minute is too much.

10:40 People will run away from you in five seconds

10:44 because what you are bringing to them

10:46 is just so repetitive and old and dull and boring.

10:54 Within five seconds, people have begun

10:56 to discover that the stuff being served

10:59 is just a rehash of something old.

11:03 Now the old thing itself wasn't able to provide any relief.

11:08 What will this thing in the new package do?

11:12 No hope.

11:13 So one just scrawls away.

11:16 And you hold your mobile phone like this,

11:17 and with one thumb or one finger,

11:19 you are just scrawling away.

11:22 Even five seconds is too much now.

11:26 So that's the thing.

11:28 Ours is an age of a very special kind of crisis, you see.

11:32 There is a complete proliferation

11:38 of all kinds of colorful objects all around.

11:42 You want to buy a car, you will be flooded with choices.

11:49 You specify a budget, and 15, 25 kinds of models are available.

11:54 You want to buy a shirt, n numbers of brands.

11:59 You want to visit a place, so many options and so many

12:01 to travel operators.

12:04 You want to eat, just look at the ever lengthening menu.

12:08 The entire culinary expanse of the world

12:14 is available on your table.

12:17 So choices, choices everywhere.

12:20 That's what the industrial age has done, right?

12:23 Go to Amazon.

12:24 Does not matter what you want, it

12:28 will be delivered at your doorsteps.

12:31 People are truly empowered.

12:34 So objects all around, and yet nothing that can satisfy you.

12:39 I'm reminded of that beautiful poem, "Water, water,

12:43 everywhere, but not a drop to drink."

12:47 A lost ship in the middle of a vast ocean.

13:00 Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink.

13:06 That's our state.

13:09 In the language of social media, you could say,

13:11 content, content everywhere, but not one video of relief.

13:21 So instead of taking the issue head on,

13:30 instead of discovering the root cause, as usual,

13:38 we have relied more on trickery and cunningness and shortcuts.

13:47 So we have said, OK, we will keep

13:48 reducing the length of the video.

13:50 We'll keep loading it with special effects.

13:53 Look at the VFX content in movies these days.

13:57 Why do you need that so much?

14:01 Why?

14:02 There is a reason.

14:03 And unless you understand that reason,

14:05 you will not understand the age you are living in.

14:08 You'll not understand the world.

14:09 You'll not understand your own life.

14:11 Why so many filters are needed?

14:17 There is a reason.

14:18 And the reason is very important to know.

14:21 You cannot have a video where you're just

14:26 saying something important in a simple way.

14:34 Because nothing important is being said at all.

14:37 Trash is being served in innumerable avatars.

14:45 And therefore, you require all kinds

14:48 of embellishments and filters and decorations,

14:53 editing and effects and all the jazz.

15:01 [VIDEO PLAYBACK]

15:06 - Getting it?

15:08 - Yes.

15:08 [MUSIC PLAYING]

15:12 [BIRDS CHIRPING]

15:15 [HORN PLAYING]

15:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended