So Google buys YouTube for $1.65B. YouTube is the popular video site where one can post and view videos of pretty much anything. The site began way back in February 2005 and exploded to become one of the most popular destinations on the Internet. Most of the videos on the site are five minutes or less. Whether this a ridiculously expensive transaction is for other blogs to discuss. My take is that the popularity of the site reflects the ever-shortening attention span of people. Before, we had 30-minute attention spans (with commercials) perhaps in response to television programming. I recall discussions a decade ago of how no one could concentrate beyond the magic 30-minute limit, a sort of societal attention-deficit disorder (ADD). Now, I think the attention span is down to about five minutes, or even less for many people.

So we live in the age of sound bites, sitcoms, video clips, and instant information. What does this mean for communicating geographic information? Geography has some complex concepts, and some of the data and visuals require concentration and time to interpret. Oftentimes, people just don’t “get it” within the first few minutes. Already, the oversimplification of geographic information influences what most people see on Web maps. On the other hand, maps and geographic analysis can greatly accelerate and clarify decisions. For some geo applications the quick hit is enough, such as automobile navigation or mobile phone location based services (LBS). While people may opt for the quick hits of information, professionals providing geographic information requiring more time to understand should strive to use that first few minutes to engage people to dig deeper.

Geo-ADD is here to stay – those providing geographic information must be aware that they have a few short moments to grab their “audience” and adapt to that reality to have the most influence possible.