Countdown anxiety
The attention span of Internet users has been shrinking over time. More than the internet, one of the primary causes for the desire to be entertained more than informed (which has led to the rise of infotainment) was the effect of television that over more than 30 years has grown generations of people used to get their information in fast paced packages that offer a quick overview of “the news” but, compared to the slower pace of reading, don’t afford time to think about and “on” what we see. Vision is more emotional and less intellectual.
I think that the blossoming success of the multitude of video sharing sites, from youtube onwards, is part of this problem. Nobody wants to have to read, this is especially true of the younger demographic of internet users. They just want to have an idea of the subject they are interested in or, more likely, they just want to be entertained.
A witness to this anxiety for “quick info” is the ubiquitous progress bar and countdown timer on all video players. In some it is hidden but on most this features are prominent and also reduce the space available to show the actual video content. The progress bar is certainly useful, especially when you have a slow/faulty connection, but I think it should be up to the user to decide to display it, along with any timer.
