Is Twitter bad for economic growth?

Bank of England's chief economist says information revolution may have cognitive costs, with shorter attention spans posing a risk to the next leap in living standards

Before you tweet about this, spare a thought for economic growth.

What if Twitter's rise is evidence of a damaging decline in attention spans? The same short attention spans that stem creativity, cut educational achievement, stymie investment and prompt Premiership bosses to be fired mid-season.

We are clearly in the midst of an information revolution, with close to 99% of the entire stock of information ever created having been generated this century. This has had real benefits. But it may also have had cognitive costs. One of those potential costs is shorter attention spans," Haldane told the University of East Anglia.

"Some societal trends are consistent with that. The tenure of jobs and relationships is declining. The average tenure of Premiership football managers has fallen by one month per year since 1994. On those trends, it will fall below one season by 2020. And what is true of football is true of finance. Average holding periods of assets have fallen tenfold since 1950. The rising incidence of attention deficit disorders, and the rising prominence of Twitter, may be further evidence of shortening attention spans."

It may cause the fast-thinking, reflexive, impatient part of the brain to expand its influence. If so, that would tend to raise societal levels of impatience and slow the accumulation of all types of capital. This could harm medium-term growth. Fast thought could make for slow growth."

If short-termism is on the rise, this puts at risk skills-building, innovation and future growth," he adds.