Microsofts recent study has shown that the human attention span has shortened from 12 second to eight seconds - meaning a goldfish, at nine seconds, now has a higher attention span than a human.
The study aims to determine the effect of technology on the attention span of humans, especially since nowadays news can be delivered in just 140 characters while conversations can be shared with the use of emoticons.
The researchers collected data from 2,000 Canadians over the age of 18. They were asked to play games and perform online interactions so that scientists could determine the impact of smartphones and other digital devices on their everyday lives, according to NDTV Gadgets.
The brain activities of the participants were recorded, and they were filmed while interacting with different social media platforms, different devices and different environments. Their attention levels were measured for every screen, task, content type and structure that they had to use during the duration of the study.
The decrease was seen across all age groups and genders in the study.
"Out of the 18 to 24 age group, more than half admit to checking their phone every 30 minutes or less and over three-fourths used their portable devices while watching TV," the findings showed.
On a positive note, the researchers found the ability to multitask has significantly improved.
