1941
Five months before Pearl Harbor,
ten seconds that changed everything:
the first commercial seen
(its time had come)
served notice with an image of a watch.
It happened during what was then
America's game,
when time was still sipped,
not guzzled.
As if we had nowhere else to go, or be,
except in what was unfolding around us.
It was story that always connected us
to everything that ever was,
showed us how be in our own moment,
and then, just like that, the
Age of Interruption had begun!
Once, people observed and understood the world around them, could navigate using celestial GPS, and would sit for hours around fires taking in sacred stories.
When they awoke in the morning, they knew where they were, and what to do, and there was value in that. They could answer the questions of their children, identify crime, punish criminals, and come together to solve the problems in the tribe, or clan, or village. Much was taken care of because the story was already there. They paid attention and profited from it.
In the years right before television, families would arrange their rhythms so as to gather around the radio absorbing together a shared version of what was. Advertisement crept in though and attention spans started to shrink accordingly.
Advertisers now measure attention spans in seconds — in seconds!
I recently read that goldfish, at 9 seconds, can pay attention to a thing longer than the average American. Yes, in marketing, the "Goldfish Effect", is a real term. The current sweet spot is 5-6 seconds to capture attention before it is off to something else.
As a result, suspect emotional appeals have replaced logos and ethos first to sell products, then crept into shaping public opinion, and now influence the politics of decision making and governance.
Shout louder, lie bolder, do anything to hold the flying eyes
of a fleeting gaze . . .
YOU ARE READING
Who Dad?!
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