Wait...What did I just read?

In the age of screens our perspective of reality is split into two camps: The digital and the physical. With the advent and availability of the Internet, most people have a digital presence. Whether it is being enrolled in a particular social media account or filling out a job application, the Internet is ingrained in our daily life. In time, the Digital Age will have an impact on culture, possibly surpassing that of the Industrial Revolution.

The Pew Research Center posted the results of a 2015 survey which outlined how many Americans adults do not use the Internet -- only 15 percent. This figure has decreased drastically since 2000 when it was discovered 48 percent of adults did not use the Internet.

With all-time low cost of smart phones and portable devices, the Internet is now within pocket's reach. Though the Internet has effectively both made the world smaller in the metaphorical sense and access to information more readily available, there is an effect which has not gone unnoticed.

Statistically, by this point in the column most people would have already stopped reading, if they even made it past the headline. So for those who are still reading, consider yourself in the minority, which is a good thing.

Microsoft released a study in May of 2015 which stated the human attention span has fallen four seconds since 2000. The study was conducted in Canada and tested people who live more digital lifestyles.

In 2000, it was surveyed the average attention span for adults was 12 seconds. Now 16 years later, the attention span is estimated to be eight seconds.

"While digital lifestyles decrease sustained attention overall, it's only true in the long-term. Early adopters and heavy social media users front load their attention and have more intermittent bursts of high attention. They're better at identifying what they want/don't want to engage with and need less to process and commit things to memory," the study states.

On the plus side, the study stated overall multi-tasking and concentration abilities have improved in short term overall since 2000.

This fact should not be surprising considering the way we consume media and information. According to Statista, in the United States 156 million people are active users on Facebook and spend an average of 39 minutes on the site everyday. For most people, especially those designated as millennials, social media sites are the premiere route to information. But in an age when the amount of information could be underwritten as superfluous, how do we delegate our time? The answer is skimming.

It would be insurmountable to read every article and every post which comes across one's Facebook feed, unless you had less than 10 friends and did not "like" a single page. In order to economize, users typically read the headline, and if it strikes their interest they will click on the link. But number clicking on the link is exceptionally low -- less than one percent. The average click-through rate in the United States is .09 percent, the lowest amount world-wide. Generally, and this occurs more often than not, in order to reach the widest audience the headline must contain the most information, because it is the sum of what people will likely see.

It is easy to extrapolate the above information and forward it to an absurd statement, such as the United States is turning into a population of goldfish. But it is apparent the Internet is having an effect on the way we process information.

For example, most of my workday is spent in front of a computer either typing, researching, posting on Facebook or updating the Greene County Daily World's website. When I arrive home, I experience a period of Internet detox. During this time, I find my ability to concentrate is hampered due to the amount of time I spend online. An hour or more passes before I regain the ability to focus due to the often schizophrenic nature of the job.

With the way our society is adapting to the Internet, perhaps it is important to take a moment of daily reprieve and turn off the cellphone, computer and television and focus on the physical rather than the digital.

Grant is a staff writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 19. He can also be reached via email at gkarazsia@gmail.com.