It’s the anti-climax of the century – and Mauritius has a front row ticket to it. The Malaysian aeroplane that disappeared without a trace remains the most reported news story of the decade. Top journalists slept next to the search team, feeding readers information that they gulped down hungrily with a starving man’s speed. Each time a fisherman spotted a floating pizza box that remotely resembled debris, they reported it. We had conspiracy theories. Expert commentary. We were interested, interested, interested. Until the fire that sparked our curiosity flickered and died.

A few days back, it was confirmed that the debris found in Mauritius really did come from the notorious plane – but the warmth from the flames were long forgotten. Had it been while the fire was on, the international media would have set up camp here. Instead, there were one or two tired news reports, short and passionless, generating zero comments from readers who couldn’t care less. We still have no idea how an aeroplane that carried 200 lives onboard disappeared. The debris can bring us closer to solving the mystery. This, right now, could have been an exciting time. But what stands in the way is our collective attention span problem. The amount of time we are willing to interest ourselves in a topic is limited – and the missing flight’s slot has been used up. 

It was never an impressive trait, the human attention span. Research tell us that it’s only getting worse. Even a goldfish can concentrate for longer – and that is not even a metaphor! The average human attention span went down from 12 to eight seconds in the last decade and a half, according to a Canadian study commissioned by Microsoft. Goldfish? They stay concentrated for nine seconds on average. One second longer than us, that is. 

Our attention span is so short that the entertainment industry has to trick us into having fun these days. It’s not for nothing that nearly every YouTube video begins with a teasing “You will NEVER guess what happened next.” A less intriguing title than that, and we’re gone. The debris from the plane didn’t stand a chance.

In Mauritius, the increasingly short attention span is combined with a notorious forgetfulness on the electorate’s part. This is an island where national scandals are soon forgotten. Where debates die out before we see results. Take abortion. After the first step of the victory, when the restrictions were eased slightly, the country moved on to the next controversy. Topic closed.

The mixed cocktail of forgetfulness and a collective short attention span puts the government in a great position to ignore its electoral promises. Here, the prime minister can get away with telling us to “focus on the future”. Dory the fish found Nemo in spite of her memory problem. Mauritius would have lost him forever. 

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