Facebook takes a punch in the gut as GM pulls advertising

Attention spans, like the news cycle and my potential suitors, are now so fast and fleeting that periods of prolonged concentration will soon become as rare as white tigers, typewriters and dressing up for church on a Sunday.

The internet does not generally require long periods of concentration, nor is it built for it. This is why I maintain my paper subscription to Vanity Fair. I can’t stare at a more-or-less static screen for long enough to get through a whole 5,000+-word article - I have to read it on paper. 

The process of buying a car requires similar concentration… unless you’re an oligarch or the playboy brother of the Sultan of Brunei, on whom I read a crazy article in my paper edition of Vanity Fair recently. It requires consideration, thought, second-guessing and general concentration.

I imagine people most likely to heed advertising on Facebook are, not to sound like a fogey, of the younger set and probably not in any position to buy a brand new car. Even if there were more new car buyers on Facebook, though, I imaging their decision is unlikely to be swayed by a fleeting image they catch sight of at the side of the screen while they flick through the family holiday photos of someone they took biology with in Sixth Form.