A World Of Digital Dim Sum

A good read from Tracy McNicoll for Newsweek on how entertainment, increasingly bite-size, intense, portable and on demand, gets shorter and smaller, so do our attention spans.

"The experts call it "snacking," and say there's much more to come. We've become savvy grazers in everything from personal electronics to food to travel. The world is our tapas bar, and mobile TV may just be our next patatas bravas."

"Fox's "24: Conspiracy" is a one-minute version of its real-time one-hour hit "24," but with a different cast and different writers. It has been translated into six languages and will be available in 30 territories by year end. Still, the shorter format doesn't mean skimping on action. "In the first episode, we manage to fit in a seduction, a betrayal, a murder and an identity theft," says Lucy Hood, president of Fox Mobile Entertainment."

... What will all these bite-size programs do to our attention span? U.S. consumer-trend researcher Iconoculture calls it "technomorphing": if rapid changes in technology haven't rewired our synapses, they have at least changed our expectations.

...Yet quick and snappy doesn't mean dumbed down. In his book "Everything Bad is Good for You," author Steven Johnson argues that, while TV's erstwhile linear, single-themed plotlines used to call for passivity, today's increasingly multipronged programs are actually making us smarter."

emily | 9:45 AM | Trends |
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