The human attention span is touted as 47 seconds, but the detail around the figure gets shrugged off in the spectacle. The trouble with statistics is that they can be misused. A figure is rigid but context tells a story. The psychologist Gloria Mark, who is often quoted in relation to our degrading attention spans — and some of whose research landed us at this median number — said on a podcast last year: “I don’t believe that our basic ability to pay attention has changed.” So what does it mean?