TED, short for Technology, Entertainment, Design, has evolved since its inception in 1984, notably shortening the duration of its talks from 19 minutes to 13. Elif Shafak, a Turkish-British author, highlighted this change during a discussion at the Hay festival, attributing it to a decrease in public attention spans. A 2022 King's College London study revealed that many people feel their attention spans have diminished, with half unable to resist checking their phones. Despite these trends, a prior study from 2015 indicated that the average length of books has actually increased.
Elif Shafak mentioned at the Hay festival that her first TED Talk was 19 minutes long, but that it was reduced to 13 minutes a decade later due to the shrinking attention span of audiences.
Shafak expressed sadness over the fact that society struggles to listen for more than a few minutes, attributing it to the overwhelming nature of hyper-information.
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