Snacks of attention…

von Roland Hachmann | Mrz 16, 2007 | Blog, Digital Culture, Marketing Trends

According to nutritionists, constantly eating (healthy) snacks throughout the day is better then indulging into huge meals ever so often.

The same seems to be true about information. David Armano draws some conclusions, all based on an article on wired that says:

Music, television, games, movies, fashion: We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips – in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed. This is snack culture – and boy, is it tasty (not to mention addictive)

As David Armano writes:

Certainly blogs, and other shorthand forms of communications which have surged in popularity tell us something about ourselves and our attention spans. But maybe there is a new reality of bite sized content being extremely effective. Sure, we want people to read our books and watch our hour long TV shows including all the commercials—but we can’t FORCE them to. If they want bite-sized nuggets it’s better than nothing. And maybe we should be thinking about how we can serve up healthy bite-sized content and experiences?

He basically argues, that information snacking shouldn’t be a problem, as long as it’s healthy snacks we’re consuming.

Of course, a 7-course meal isn’t the same as a quick snack. But at least we spend some time with it. We will most likely even remember the 7-course meal much better than the quick snack.

The quick snack is in danger of being lost in short term memory, purely because of the other attractions surrounding it. We’re talking about an increasing shortage of attention within this snack-economy…