In the Victorian Era, men and women were not challenged on their personalities, but rather their collection of knowledge. Women studied reading, writing, music, art, dancing, literature, all for the sake of being "cultured" because well cultured partners were more desirable. Know a decent amount of lots of things, instead of all about a few things. The increasing amount of knowledge straining on the human brain forced us to give up other information, like how to actually absorb the message of the knowledge, and not simply memorize it for repetition. And that's what it is, the schools then started becoming so obsessed with book teaching and testing and gaining more money, that all they cared about was whether a child could spit back out the information or not. There was no focus on whether the child was actually LEARNING the material, instead of just memorizing it. The Victorian Era is single-handedly responsible for the destruction and resurrection of the human logic, and why it's a good thing.

This increased amount of information being stuffed into the human brain made us focus on the words of the logic for repitition. Which in turn forced all all consumption of the actual logic behind the words. Why know what the tools does if you can't name it? So we started focusing on that, being able to parrot or robot-repeat back perfectly what was told to us. This lessened the amount of space the information could take up, by callapsing the consciousness into a 2 instead of 3-dimensional frame of mind. That there is always something beyond. Limiting our imagination. Therefore, with the depleting amount of space, we started needing to be able to learn at a shorter pace. We liked having all the important information be presented to us flat and straight out, and none of the fancy decorations and flourishing of words. Just tell me cliffnotes version and i'll figure the rest out for myself.

This however led to less consumption of the knowledge, than the information. Leaving us needing an easier way to store all the information in easily accessible points. Aka encyclopedia britannica. Collections of poetry, music books. Vast amounts of letters, sonnets, journals, novels, our culture being preserved for future generations. Of course the rise in the preservation and development in culture, led to an advancement in technology. People needed quicker, easier ways to store and do things. Because of their shortened amount of knowledge retention, and the hard push to educate the masses. This eventually led to the invention of digital storage. Soon after, personal computers were found in 1/3 of the homes in america. Now, it's hard to think of people who don't have a computer in the home? Can you name someone you personally know who doesnt have a computer or access to one? Neither can I. Other than severly desolate areas in numerous 3rd world countries around the globe.

The rise in technology led us from being audio/visual learners, to strictly visual learners with the invention of televsion. Along with the technological advance, came a new media for marketing. One that would fill nearly every home in america by the 1960's. Television generated an easier way to learn audibly and visually, without all the messy paper. Along with our main stream media, came product marketing commercials, which began as short interludes during a tv show (which at the time most of were broadcast live.) These commercials were being forced to take up less and less time, in order to pack in more commercials, which meant more sponsorship, which meant more money for the tv show. Commercials 10 years ago on average pack all of the information you need to know in 30 seconds or less. However, nowadays, the tv shows are becoming longer and longer. Leading to more air time for tv commerical airing. And since we want even more commericals, let's stretch this 45 min program out to an hour and we'll put in 15 min of commercials, but we'll put them in small intervals, and they wont even notice. Now, commercials are becoming longer and longer, and more deadened with information. It's not that we couldnt retain the information, it's that we are stuck at a slower learning pace than we are used to. We're now focusing on the absorbtion of the meaning of the knowledge than of the knowledge itself. We're basically being deevolved, because of the slow rate of information trasnfer.

However, because these commercials are getting longer, they have more time to visually show you everything they are talking about, so that you hear and see the message at the same time, absorbing it fully, nowadays you can't go anywhere and not find SOMEONE who knows how to finish this line: "How many licks..."

It's not that our attention spans are shortening. It's that we have finally realized how short it has become in the last century, and now we are trying to do something about it, including forcing people to sit through 4 hour long movies. THANKS Peter Jackson...my butt was numb for a week. The Victorian Era may have destroyed our attention spans, but it has preserved our culture, and our humanity. At least this way, if the world does end. There will be all kinds of resources of information that say "The Human Race WAZ HERE". A giant global letter to the universe, "Hey, what's up, this is Earth, we're not home right now, leave a message at the beep".