Mass media and the internet have caused people’s attention spans to get shorter. However, the overall effect has been positive: while people are less able to focus on one thing, they more than make up for it with an enhanced ability to sort through large quantities of information and find what’s important.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

Response
The role of mass media in today's world can't be ignored. While the statement here is trying to deduce whether our short lived attentions towards issues is a positive aspect giving us the choice to select what needs to be given importance or not. I agree that media has provided us exposure to a lot of information which we didn't have earlier but making our attention spans short isn't one of its boon. The overall effect can't be comprehended here because getting more information at the cost of attention isn't the best barter because these are two different factors altogether.

Internet is full of knowledge, both positive and negative. It is up to us to leverage it in the best possible way. While it may help us to dwell more and more into interest of our topics, we have forgotten to give attention to the real world around us like our family, our friends, pets etc. The attention span has been definitely affected in our dinner table conversations which used to be about how our day went and discussing what was taught in school to now staring at our phones while eating, following some random profile on Instagram and getting influenced by it. So instead of giving attention to the real world around them, people are busy exploring the social media.

In addition to that, we might have got humongous information, it is important to focus on important things as well. We get overwhelmed by so much of data that we might actually lose our sense of judging what needs primary attention. For instance, the issues like global warming, so many species getting extinct or near extinction are utmost priority and needs to be address not just by our leaders but the public in general as well.The young kids these days instead of getting responsible and taking actions towards these issues are more inclined towards following the footsteps of their favorite stars. While we may have provided our generation with information of everything and about anything, it is important to guide them to filter and analyse the focus that needs to be given to these information.

Also, with so many websites, blogs, portals it has also become difficult to trust the information on the mass media. So it is not very accurate to say that people being less focus has been compensated by ability to sort out information through large quantities of data. Not only does these zillions of sources of same information result in misguided information but also so many fraudulent cases as well. People tend to believe on these social media frauds and end up paying the price.

So to sum, Internet does come with its so many advantages of getting information to us which wasn't known by only an esoteric group of individuals earlier. However, its cons can't be ignored as well. When it is important to provide focus on the issues and subjects that require most attention, the inability to do so can't be made up by providing access to all sorts of information and leaving it upto the individual to decide its priority of subject.