If there’s unlimited supplies of bite-sized content, should we feel more in control?

I don’t know if you feel the same, but blimey, where did the first quarter of the year go?

I know we live in a world where technology has theoretically massively improved productivity and efficiency, but I can’t help feeling there is no time to think any more, let alone actually enjoy life.

Apparently if Andy Warhol were making his 15 minutes of fame statement today he would have to shorten it to eight seconds.

This is allegedly the attention span of the average young person now. To put this in context a gold fish has an attention span of nine seconds – no I don’t have a clue how they measure it either but it makes a nice sound bite.

Maybe we need to reconsider the value of cost-efficient global ads in favour of more local short content

So here the paradox; if there is almost an unlimited supply of content now and it’s all in super short format, and available anywhere, any time, all the time, surely time should feel like it’s slowing down not speeding up? We should feel more in control?

Millennials seem to be coping with this accelerated new world fairly naturally.

Even though they live in permanent fear of missing out, they have created a filter system that lets them focus only on what’s relevant and useful to them. Likes, approvals and shares have become the way they sort the wheat from the chaff.

Even more interestingly they are becoming far more localised. Most purchases are made just 10 miles from their home. Which would lead me to ask if maybe we need to reconsider the value of seemingly cost efficient global ads in favour of far more local short content.

If you feel like sharing this to re-affirm me, I’ll post it on Twitter and you can re-tweet #morelocalplease. Given my eight seconds expired somewhere in paragraph three, this request might not get any response, so instead I’ll go and download the new Spritz app and read a Harry Potter novel in an hour.