We live in an age of 140 characters, so many of us now find it hard to concentrate for more than, say, five minutes on any given subject.
As a result of this collective attention deficit disorder, the criminal justice system is suffering from increasing numbers of jurors who either don’t or won’t pay attention.
Even in a brief trial, juries often ask to have testimony re-read, a request that judges can’t grant. Jurors have to pay attention to what is said in a trial because they won’t have the opportunity to re-hear what witnesses have said.
Combine shorter attention spans with the public’s general mistrust of government (i.e. police/prosecutors), some folks’ anger at having to serve as jurors for a paltry $9 a day, and some witnesses’ attempts to avoid snitching (i.e. telling the truth) and district attorneys are having a tougher time gaining convictions. At least that’s what I’m seeing happening in Lebanon County court rooms.
Another issue: Many people lack a basic understanding of how government or courts function beyond what they might see on a TV show or in a movie.
But back to the chronic and growing ADD issue. It’s happening in all aspects of society. A few examples:
In sports, soccer is growing rapidly in popularity, while golf is declining. A soccer match, barring overtime, lasts less than two hours. A round of golf takes twice that long. Golf Digest recently decided to cease publication except for its website. The number of people who golf declined by about 400,000 last year. Fewer people are playing and watching the sport.
In education, some school districts that switched to block scheduling, in which students have only four classes in a semester, have returned to more traditional seven or eight classes. In block scheduling, classes would last about 90 minutes, compared to a 40-45 minute time frame for traditional classes.
Any movie that runs more than two hours had better be good, or the word will get out that it’s too long.
Notice how fast frustration increases when the line at a grocery store checkout grows to more than two people?
On election night, people want results an hour after polls close.
So it’s no wonder that the court system is being affected too.
SPORTS NOTES — Hard to believe, but high school fall sports practice is less than two weeks away, with the first official day Aug. 11 for most sports. Football begins even earlier, with state-mandated heat acclimation practice opening Aug. 6 (yikes, that’s next week!). Practice is starting as early as it ever can due to Labor Day falling on Sept. 1, which means the first football games are set for Aug. 29. … High school basketball season will start Dec. 5. Lebanon and Cedar Crest, which have been playing early in the season for a long time, will have to wait until Jan. 16 to see each other.
As always, follow along on Twitter @sesnyderleb.