When you visit a website, how long does it take you to decide if it’s worth your time or not? You probably know right away whether you want to read more and click to the next page. In fact, marketing professionals say we spend about two seconds glancing at a webpage before we decide to browse further or click away.
Two seconds! We really have gotten good at quick decision making. Right? Isn’t that what we can learn from this? Or sadly, maybe it speaks more to our attention spans and the “need” we have to be entertained--fast.
It was eye opening to visit the Grand Canyon recently and see people take a picture “with” the Grand Canyon and then just leave. Obviously, my video of this phenomenon is a timelapse, so it’s sped up a bit (10x to be exact), and people are in reality spending a little more time appreciating one of the world’s wonders. Maybe they are even giving it more than the two seconds they might give a website. But it was still surprising.
I presume the tourists were going on to the next lookout to get a different view. I did the same. I wanted to appreciate the Grand Canyon from all the angles I could find. I even got up way too early for my normal therapist hours and watched the sun rise over the rim of the canyon. Sadly, at those other lookouts, people were doing the same thing. Arrive, take photo, leave, repeat.
It hit me hard--this is our world now. Entertain me fast! Scroll click, scroll click. Our Internet lives and habits are bleeding into our daily life. Maybe this is not a new concept to many of you. Perhaps some of you work hard at not letting this happen.
Unfortunately, in my therapy practice, I see too many people use their phones and the Internet as a way to escape life. And when we think we are sharing life with others, through the Internet, we might be missing out on life.
“My challenge to you: go for a hike, sit on the beach, walk in a park, and don’t post about it.”
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