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Too Stressed to Commit? Too Tired to Think? Try a Half-Hour Show
It used to be that sitcoms were 30 minutes and dramas were an hour (including commercial breaks). However, there has been a trend toward shorter form 20–30-minute dramatic programming. From a practical perspective, shorter programming allows for a greater breadth of consumption. It’s pretty clear that the quantity of media choices has grown, but the number of hours in a day has stayed the same. But the real issues aren’t the traditional constraints. We are COVID-exhausted. Attention takes energy.
The avowed enthusiasm for programs that demand a shorter investment of time raises questions about our stress level and the cognitive energy that we can or want to expend on focused attention. You’d think during a period of sheltering at home and varying degrees of social distancing, the last thing we’d be worried about is the length of a program. But the stress and anxiety from COVID actually use up our cognitive resources before we ever tune in.
You can manage your cognitive energy by program length. Tired? Stressed? Go short, simple and familiar.
I’ve seen conflicting arguments about shorter shows. Some people argue that their attention span is totally used up and the thought of a whole hour to watch something seems impossible. Others are promoting half-hour shows as binge-worthy. They are…
