Article URL: https://moai.studio/blog/posts/they-stole-your-attention.html Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49096043 Points: 17 # Comments: 14

Measured by unobtrusive computer logging, workplace and home. The famous “goldfish attention span” stat is folklore; these are logged durations. The 2025 column marks Mark's January 2025 reaffirmation: the average has held at 47 seconds since ~2016, a steady state. Whisker shows the 40–50s band across the median and independent replications. After a diversion from an active task, re-immersion takes about 25 minutes. Each switch is cheap for the feed and expensive for the switched. One 47-second loss costs a 25-minute recovery: a 32× asymmetry, and the asymmetry is the business model. Rolling 28-day Microsoft 365 telemetry ending Feb 2025, top 20% of users by ping volume: meeting invites, emails and chats land every 2 minutes across the 9–5. Set against the chart above: the recovery time from one interruption contains the next twelve. Annual average revenue per user, US & Canada segment, compiled from Meta quarterly filings. Meta moved the denominator from Facebook-only users to Family of Apps users in 2021; historical figures were restated. Full-year 2025 worldwide figure: $57.03 per user, an all-time high. Chart & stat sources: Gloria Mark, APA interview · Univ. of California · Common Sense Media, Constant Companion (2023) · Sensor Tower, State of Mobile 2026 · Microsoft WorkLab, Infinite Workday (2025) · Meta investor relations Your attention is the most valuable thing you own. Trillion-dollar machines bid for it every 47 seconds. Guard the input. The output follows.