Shakespeare for the Short-Attention Span

The other day in class we were talking about how in Shakespeare's day, though we don't know if they sat through complete versions of the play, we assume they sat through longer versions than we do now. Part of the reason, Professor Burton suggested, was that for them, words and speaking was their entertainment. They had longer attention spans back then and a higher tolerance for sitting through plays because that was what they did. They did not live in the world of quick and instant in which we all live, and they did not have TV, the Internet, or movies. We briefly discussed this phenomenon in class, but it reminded me of a form address given by Micheal Flaherty, president and co-founder of Walden Media back forever ago. After over half an hour of searching for this forum I remembered, I finally found his name, but could never find a transcript of his address. An MP3 of the speech can be found here or you can watch in on BYUtv here. It was a really interesting address that stood out to me because of the way that he portrayed the power that film can have in influencing people. But the thing that makes it relevant to this discussion is that he talked about how the attention span of Americans and the world is decreasing. We're starting to go away from even the 90 minute movies, and he contended the 90 second to several minute Internet videos would soon be the new medium for entertainment and sharing information. As evidence, look at the way YouTube has just appeared out of nowhere in recent years. He gave a much longer, more persuasive, and more argument than that, and I generally thought he had a valid and interesting point. So, more to the point, perhaps in this world of quick and instant in which we live, if people's attention spans really are growing shorter, Shakespeare will have to adapt to fit in with that kind of a world. Perhaps Shakespeare vignettes will become the new medium. Particularly in this class where we are exploring new mediums and cutting edge technologies along with Shakespeare, perhaps exploring how exactly Shakespeare could fit into this world would be worthwhile. I think blogging and the multitude of YouTube videos about Shakespeare are prime examples. Maybe creating several Shakespeare vignettes would be a good creative project. Mostly I'm just brainstorming, but I was intrigued by the idea trend of shortening attention spans that seems to be manifesting itself.