The 1 minute Paradox

TheMadFool

I use a social media app that has voice messaging function. I joined a chat group a while ago and nothing especially interesting occured until this conversation:

Me: Blah blah blah [duration: 59 seconds]

Friend: You talk too much. Keep it short, 10 seconds is about as much as I can take. Longer than that and it gets on my nerves

Me: That doesn't make sense. Suppose I want to say something that's going to be 50 seconds long and I do it in small bursts, each 10 seconds long. It doesn't matter that I broke the original message into five 10 second chunks because 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds = 50 seconds. The total amount of time you'll be listening to me is still 50 seconds.

If my friend is an average person then, everyone should share my friends opinion on how long voice messages. They need to be divvied up into small package, each roughly 10 seconds long. How does one square this with the fact that using this technique to not bore the other person you're voice messaging doesn't actually affect the total length of the message?

I guess a food analogy works by way of an explanation: yes, a person does want to eat the extra-large pizza but s/he can only do it one slice at a time.

Is there a name for my friend's attitude and his behavior in psychology? Does this attitude/behavior reveal something about the human psyche?

jgill

Does this attitude/behavior reveal something about the human psyche? — TheMadFool

It might reveal more about what you were saying during that 59 seconds. Just a thought.

Sir2u

It is a relativity problem.

If you have to listen to your wife nagging at you for 10 seconds, it is way too long.
If you want to listen to all of the wonderful things your new girl is trying to say, 10 seconds is way too little.

As jgill says, it might be what you are saying.

Or maybe you need to change your friends for people with a higher attention span.

Everything is relative.

TheMadFool

It might reveal more about what you were saying during that 59 seconds. Just a thought. — jgill

If you have to listen to your wife nagging at you for 10 seconds, it is way too long.
If you want to listen to all of the wonderful things your new girl is trying to say, 10 seconds is way too little. — Sir2u

That only explains the fact that people are more willing to listen longer if the message is interesting. The desire to listen longer is directly proportional to how interesting the message is.

The situation I described is not exactly an issue of how interesting the content of the message is. Even a very dull 50 second long message becomes tolerable if fragmented into smaller, shorter, chunks.

Noble Dust

My guess is a) you ramble on the voice message app, and b) people's attention spans have lessened. It's a recipe for disaster on your part.

Sir2u

The situation I described is not exactly an issue of how interesting the content of the message is. Even a very dull 50 second long message becomes tolerable if fragmented into smaller, shorter, chunks. — TheMadFool

So option B, people need to acquire listening skills. As others have pointed out as well, attention span seems to be shrinking for a lot of younger people in today's instant communication world.

I wonder how the kids of today are going to do when the have to sit through a 90 minute university lecture.

jgill

One long, continuous paragraph might be a little much to process, whereas ten second parts separated by pauses allowing the listener to digest a sequence of related ideas might work better.

I wonder how the kids of today are going to do when the have to sit through a 90 minute university lecture. — Sir2u

Times are changing. Ninety minute lectures may fade away. I hope so.

Sir2u

Times are changing. Ninety minute lectures may fade away. I hope so. — jgill

I am glad that I do not have to hold my breath waiting for that to happen. I seriously doubt that it would be possible to fit any university lecture into anything less that 1 hour unless it was an absolutely useless topic that the students could learn all by themselves.

Caldwell

Me: That doesn't make sense. Suppose I want to say something that's going to be 50 seconds long and I do it in small bursts, each 10 seconds long. It doesn't matter that I broke the original message into five 10 second chunks because 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds + 10 seconds = 50 seconds. The total amount of time you'll be listening to me is still 50 seconds. — TheMadFool

59 seconds of voicemail is a bit too long. (you said earlier it's 59 seconds).
That's about a minute. You want to keep it shorter than that. It doesn't matter whether you make small bursts of 10 seconds each. If it's a really close person to you, it wouldn't matter. A good friend or family member would want to hear what you need to say. But anyone less than that, it's too long.

Is there a name for my friend's attitude and his behavior in psychology? Does this attitude/behavior reveal something about the human psyche? — TheMadFool

It reveals something about the state of affairs. With all the competing distractions that we face each day -- whether you're unemployed, stay at home, or a traveler -- our patience, or better yet, our expectation of time of completion has warped beyond belief.

TheMadFool

↪Caldwell

Thank you. It seems time is too precious to waste on reading/listening verbosity. My friends would've loved Paul Dirac (1902 - 1984). He hated poetry and poetry is about saying something that can be said in one sentence in as many a sentences as is possible.

Caldwell

He hated poetry and poetry is about saying something that can be said in one sentence in as many a sentences as is possible. — TheMadFool

Unless it's a haiku.

TheMadFool

Unless it's a haiku. — Caldwell

Excellent point! Nevertheless, word limits do impose a serious constraint on poets.

Caldwell

Excellent point! Nevertheless, word limits do impose a serious constraint on poets. — TheMadFool

Yes, every word counts, and no extraneous effort needed to make them get your point. Same with stand up comedians -- if they need to use more words to make the audience laugh, they've already failed.

Sir2u

Yes, every word counts, and no extraneous effort needed to make them get your point. Same with stand up comedians -- if they need to use more words to make the audience laugh, they've already failed. — Caldwell

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”
― A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

TheMadFool

Yes, every word counts, and no extraneous effort needed to make them get your point. Same with stand up comedians -- if they need to use more words to make the audience laugh, they've already failed — Caldwell

:up:

The 1 minute Paradox

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