The Vanishing Patience – How We Moved From Context to Clips

When I was a kid, I remember entire families piling into cars to go see a movie that lasted two or three hours. Watching something from beginning to end was normal; you sat through the credits, maybe even talked about the story afterward. At home, I’d sit beside my parents to watch the evening news. The anchors would walk viewers through full interviews, layered coverage, and deep analysis. It wasn’t just about headlines; it was about context.

But somewhere along the way, that started to change. People stopped going to the movies as much, and “watching the news” turned into scrolling through quick clips on our phones. Now, instead of long-form reporting, we get 30-second TikToks summarizing global events or five-second “sound bites” meant to hold our attention before the next swipe.

I’ve noticed it in myself, too. Attention spans feel shorter, and we’ve grown so used to instant information that patience has become rare. It’s not necessarily anyone’s fault that digital media has trained us to expect speed. But that speed comes with a cost. When stories are trimmed down to a few seconds, nuance disappears. It’s almost impossible to capture the depth of a complex issue in a single minute.

What’s left is often the most emotional, shocking, or divisive part, the part most likely to go viral.