Short Attention Span? (Old Man Concerns)

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, there are things I notice that concern me. First off I'd be remiss not to state that most of these concerns concern me.  I often have trouble paying attention watching T.V., driving, in conversation and at church without fighting the impulse to pull out my phone and check my email, the internet, etc.

However, I remember reading an article about how children's shows have changed drastically in the length of each shot (unfortunately I couldn't locate the article). The point as I remember it is that children's shows in the past (i.e. Sesame Street) use multiple cameras and multiple shots, changing periodically to change perspective and emphasize a different speaker or point of interest.  The article made the point that on The Street and other classic children's shows the length of each camera shot was considerable longer than shots on newer children's T.V. shows.  By quickly changing camera angles/shots it creates a sense of stimulation and excitement.  Older shows like The Street tend to linger and give the child time to process information and settle into a scene; while newer shows by contrast force a sense of excitement by keeping children on their toes.

I bring this up because whereas before my daughter was introduced primarily to Sesame Street and loved the show, my son via the power of Netflix was introduced to newer formatted, shorter shows.  Now that my son and his older sister are accustomed to those shows (who's run times also run about 25 minutes, compared to Sesame Street's epic run time of 50 minutes), calmer shows which take more time to develop and patiently present information seem horribly boring.  After 10 minutes of Sesame Street my son is begging for something else.

This led me to wonder what consequence this might have on my children's ability to learn and be engaged with people, situations and life in general as they age.  I could further this to question what affect T.V. shows or multimedia in general have had on our ability to focus on anything other than what flashes repeatedly in front of us.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with T.V. or smartphones or whatever else, but as I get older and my children get older, shouldn't I question what the world presents as normal? I think so.