It is no secret that our attention span has reduced significantly over recent years. Recent studies suggest that we have the attention span of just eight seconds, one second less than a goldfish. I am doubtful on that particular piece of research.
However, I know from my coaching sessions that most people remain engaged for around two and a half minutes unless I move about, have lots of power-point slides to give them something to look at (instead of my ugly mug) introduce humour to produce endorphins which will make them feel good, and have a variety of interactions.
A modern day city dweller now takes in as much information during a twenty-four-hour day as the brain of those who lived in medieval Britain would have done in the course of their entire lifetime. Frightening isn't it?
Despite this recent phenomenon, which is from advances in technology, our brains remain hardwired for simplicity hence we can become overwhelmed at times. We often tend to look for simple things displayed in simple ways to reduce the inflow of information that continues to bombard our brain.
A study showed that double the number of people purchased a product that had easy to read typeface on the packaging compared to one with difficult to read typeface. Using big words no longer cuts it for most people.
Have you noticed that websites are starting to become simpler to read (mine is really simple because of the owner) phones are placing less number and much simpler apps on their screens, and cars are returning to plain dashboards.
In simplicity lies beauty. Our brains continue to search for simplicity because technology has filled our world with complexity and our brains haven't quite caught up yet.
If you are a marketer, a presenter, a coach, in fact anyone who interacts with people on a regular basis, you may want to turn back the clock a little and keep it simple. After all, our brains are wired that way.
