As other have mentioned, I do not think that you can draw any meaningful conclusion about attention, span by questioning the comments to linked articles ratio.

As other have mentioned, I do not think that you can draw any meaningful conclusion about attention, span by questioning the comments to linked articles ratio. In a lot of cases peoples attention is probably locked onto the comment section for longer than it would take to read the article itself. The comment section is among other things an "open source quality meter". I can get sucked in by good writing in an article only to read in the comments that the entire premise of the article might be wrong. The comment section is filled with intelligent individuals that can vouch the link as well as perhaps link to something better. Hence I always check the comment section.