My Fair Attention Span
MY FAIR LADY:
This past Friday iTunes finally released Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison’s classic film, My Fair Lady. I was excited because my son Giac loves musicals and I knew this would be a great way to spend a little extra time together over the holiday weekend. He had never seen the film before, but he knew the phrase “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” and I thought he would be inspired by one of cinema's classic musicals. What I didn’t expect was how different this viewing experience would be for me.
We made it through about half of the movie the first night; it’s a nearly three hour film. But it feels much, much longer. Each scene feels like it goes on forever, actually. Single shots last minutes instead of today's seconds and it made me realize how different our entertainment was years ago.
REFLECTIONS
When I was younger, I was (and still am) a huge Steve Martin Martin fan… I have always loved him so much. I’ve read every book, seen every movie, and been to every play. His autobiography sits on one of the shelves in my library, I read it a few years back and ended up watching a lot of old footage of his work and early SNL performances. I felt the same feeling then as I feel now. I couldn’t believe how long they were... it was just him standing and talking for so long with a harmonica. I just watched one right now, his first performance in 1976. It was NINE minutes long, just Steve with a banjo. That just doesn’t happen any more.
When I’m creating content for TikTok and Instagram I often worry that 30 seconds is too much. I’m constantly thinking about time limits and when I should cut or tighten content. In fact I’m constantly thinking, “maybe this needs to be shorter than 20 seconds or even 15 for fear that people won’t get through it if I don’t.” Our attention span as a society is getting shorter. We are too used to this fast pace of stimuli and it can feel almost uncomfortable to sit with slow paced material. So this week I want to challenge you.
CHALLENGE
I want you to slow down and stop scrolling quickly for one day. Watch video content to the end regardless if you get the urge to swipe on. To see how it feels. And I want to challenge you to take a day offline and create something!
Post something you create with the hashtag #acreativechallenge,
or if you don’t have IG or are set to private feel free to send it to ideas@carolynmara.com
I’m going to feature my favourite creations on my social media next week!
I can’t wait to see what you create,
Carolyn!
