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"These days Sesame Street is paced and programmed to fit microscopic attention spans" This was the first thing I noticed watching an old episode of Sesame Stre

by aimor 5y ago

"These days Sesame Street is paced and programmed to fit microscopic attention spans" This was the first thing I noticed watching an old episode of Sesame Street back to back with a new episode. The pacing of the show was too fast. The camera kept cutting, the puppet jumped from location to location, there was no time to think. And educational shows need to give the audience time to think, otherwise it's just passive entertainment.

xg15 5y ago
Baseless speculation, but: Could it be that the show's writers and directors have the same diminished attention spans as their audience? :) We're all in the smartphone age today, not just the children. And we probably all feel the psychological effects of its use. (Those who use smartphones at least). So it might be that a scriptwriter from a few decades ago would feel fine with a slower pace, while a modern scriptwriter would feel the pacing was too slow when reading the same script.
- simulate-me 5y ago
  Could be, or maybe fewer people have children and those that do have them older, leading to a lack of empathy from the writers. Or perhaps kids attention spans really have decreased. A lot of 1 year olds know how to use a smart phone.
simulate-me 5y ago
Yes it’s crazy how slow kids are. I was trying to teach my 1 year old daughter some things and thought she just wasn’t getting it. Then I found that if I left a 10 second pause between actions, she would be able to piece together what I was showing her and it would click. Just a personal anecdote, but I definitely underestimated the amount of time needed for young minds to absorb information.
sjg007 5y ago
I've noticed this too. It is really pronounced when you watch old movies vs new movies today. Probably because editing was a PITA and now is really easy.
- sjg007 5y ago
  Also the same thing happens with music. I take Jazz or classical music as an example. If you really get into them then I've found listening to most pop music has become slow and boring.
- dghughes 5y ago
  Modern TV shows or streaming shows have lost their opening theme song scenes. I can see for TV to stuff more ads in to make more money. On streaming opening themes could be long but people have no patience so they'd just skip it.
  - bluefirebrand 5y ago
    I feel this is a really bad example. If I'm watching one episode a week of course I don't mind watching the opening theme every single time. If I'm watching six in a row of course I'm going to skip it every time. A recent example of this is Peacemaker. It is a made-for-streaming show that was on a weekly release schedule, and it has one of the most fun opening sequences I've ever seen. Watching it weekly, I watched the opening every time. But one week I skipped it so I watched two the next week, and of course I skipped it on the second episode that day
blenderdt 5y ago
Well I also think it is the other way around. Producers think a show should be fast and flashy because else kids don't like it. This is bullshit. The same is happening in movies. A bad story is sold with great looking explosions. People like great stories, you don't need flashy graphics for that.
gnz11 5y ago
How much of this is down to the editors and producers knowing only the MTV, quick-cut style of video production (which seems to have been en vogue since the '00s) and not having any mentorship or guidance from the old guard? If that style of video production is all you know, then everything is going to have that same quick-cut style of production. Similar to web developers who only know JS...every problem becomes a JS problem to be solved in the JS way. (e.g. if all you have is a hammer...)

by aimor 5y ago

xg15 5y ago

Baseless speculation, but: Could it be that the show's writers and directors have the same diminished attention spans as their audience? :) We're all in the smartphone age today, not just the children. And we probably all feel the psychological effects of its use. (Those who use smartphones at least). So it might be that a scriptwriter from a few decades ago would feel fine with a slower pace, while a modern scriptwriter would feel the pacing was too slow when reading the same script.

simulate-me 5y ago
Could be, or maybe fewer people have children and those that do have them older, leading to a lack of empathy from the writers. Or perhaps kids attention spans really have decreased. A lot of 1 year olds know how to use a smart phone.

simulate-me 5y ago

Yes it’s crazy how slow kids are. I was trying to teach my 1 year old daughter some things and thought she just wasn’t getting it. Then I found that if I left a 10 second pause between actions, she would be able to piece together what I was showing her and it would click. Just a personal anecdote, but I definitely underestimated the amount of time needed for young minds to absorb information.

sjg007 5y ago

I've noticed this too. It is really pronounced when you watch old movies vs new movies today. Probably because editing was a PITA and now is really easy.

sjg007 5y ago
Also the same thing happens with music. I take Jazz or classical music as an example. If you really get into them then I've found listening to most pop music has become slow and boring.
dghughes 5y ago
Modern TV shows or streaming shows have lost their opening theme song scenes. I can see for TV to stuff more ads in to make more money. On streaming opening themes could be long but people have no patience so they'd just skip it.
- bluefirebrand 5y ago
  I feel this is a really bad example. If I'm watching one episode a week of course I don't mind watching the opening theme every single time. If I'm watching six in a row of course I'm going to skip it every time. A recent example of this is Peacemaker. It is a made-for-streaming show that was on a weekly release schedule, and it has one of the most fun opening sequences I've ever seen. Watching it weekly, I watched the opening every time. But one week I skipped it so I watched two the next week, and of course I skipped it on the second episode that day

blenderdt 5y ago

Well I also think it is the other way around. Producers think a show should be fast and flashy because else kids don't like it. This is bullshit. The same is happening in movies. A bad story is sold with great looking explosions. People like great stories, you don't need flashy graphics for that.

gnz11 5y ago

How much of this is down to the editors and producers knowing only the MTV, quick-cut style of video production (which seems to have been en vogue since the '00s) and not having any mentorship or guidance from the old guard? If that style of video production is all you know, then everything is going to have that same quick-cut style of production. Similar to web developers who only know JS...every problem becomes a JS problem to be solved in the JS way. (e.g. if all you have is a hammer...)