The Rise of Visual Content and the Fall Attention Spans

Over the past few years visual content has risen to the top as a preferred form of social media content.

Seeing is believing, and in 2015 this visual trend will continue and strengthen as our attention spans weaken.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, consumer attention spans have significantly decreased over the last decade. In fact, the average person’s attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to only 8 seconds in 2013. This is really unfortunate news, especially when compared to the average attention span of a gold fish – which is 9 seconds!

…and we can thank social media for that!

We have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, Snapchat, Instagram, and newcomers, Ello, and Tsu, to mention a few.  These social platforms are pushing content across our computers, smartphones, and tablets at rate of millions of updates and texts per second.

So, why the continued rise and popularity of visual content? Here’s why…

In this new age of information overload, bite-sized content known as micro-content is a powerful trend. Today, the internet user wants as much valuable information as possible in as short as time as possible. Visuals such as single images, mini-data, tips, mini-graphs, illustrations, infographics and factoids are among the favorite micro-content shared.

The good news is although our attention spans are shorter, we are consuming more information overall. High-quality content like e-books, white papers, and articles are still relevant. These serve to help engage your audiences and foster relationships. But, no matter what type of content you produce, be sure and mix in plenty visual content. Obviously, this is great news for visual artists!

Stay tuned because I will be sharing more visual and micro-content tips in the near future.

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I hope to meet you in Atlanta, Georgia at my upcoming 2015 social media and oil painting workshops! Click here to learn more.

Let’s also meet on my social media sites > Fine Art Tips Facebook Fan Page, on Twitter, and on Pinterest. Be sure and check out and my fine art prints and notecards on Fine Art America.  Or see my art on my website,  LoriMcNee.com.