ArticleThe crowd loved it. The media loved it. The social media sphere exploded. It was easily the best day of live cricket I’ve seen. But the euphoria that engulfed Saturday’s 1st Ashes test match in Perth hinted at a wider trend that has spread across society—a deeper truth we would do well to think about: Our ever-diminishing attention spans demand exhilaration.
As my friends and I arrived at Perth’s Optus Stadium and took our seats at the eastern boundary, we expected England to creep towards an easy win that would come a day or two later. What followed was one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of international cricket. At around 1pm on Saturday, England were in control—leading by more than 100 runs. Just 4 hours later—somehow—the match was over, with an historic Australian victory.
The day has since been widely reported on as the ‘TikTok Test Match’—tailor-made for an era of low-attention and high dopamine, that flowed in the brains of the 50,000 of us who were there, and the 5.8 million who watched it on TV.
Test match cricket is usually played across five days—structured to reward strategy, deep-focus, concentration and endurance. What other sport is there when you can say you’re heading out to watch the game, and only return five days later?
While some of us can’t get enough, for a growing number it’s just too boring. The cry for shorter sharper formats saw the introduction of one-day cricket in the 1960s and then T20 cricket in the early 2000s—now garnished with fireworks, cheerleaders and DJs.
This appetite for more speed, flair, colour and thrill is evident across the consumer economy. We’re told that Red Bull ‘gives us wings’, that we can ‘taste the feeling’ with Coke, that we can ‘Just do it!’ with Nike, and of course, ‘Oh what a feeling’ it is to drive a Toyota.
If people aren’t enthralled, you’ll lose their attention. As 90s grunge band Nirvana put it on behalf of a generation: Here we are now! Entertain us!
We are ditching movies for TikTok and Insta reels. Song lengths are down by more than 30%. We’re reading far fewer books. We’re getting bored of our food— eating more quickly than ever. And even Bluey isn’t immune—now supplementing already sharp 7-minute episodes with 2-3 minute mini-sodes.
In The Sirens Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource, author and TV presenter Chris Hayes notes that we have shifted from an information age to an attention age. Our most valuable companies used to deal in oil, energy, pharmaceuticals and manufactured consumer goods. Now, they trade in entertainment and attention—plying us with reels, shorts, likes and personally targeted advertising.
Boredom—it seems—is unique to our modern world. We have socially, economically and culturally constructed a society in which our thirst for novelty is our driving motivator. Our pursuit of dopamine seems unstoppable. And modern conditions are both revealing and boosting our hunger for novelty. Information is infinite, but attention is limited. That’s why it’s so valuable. And that’s why how we spend it matters more than any other resource we have.
The Bible suggests that ‘steadfastness’ leads to perfection and completeness —commending patience and endurance over short-term pleasure and instant gratification. The Christian vision for human flourishing is an invitation to play the long game—anchoring our attention in the longer, slower, deeper things— relationships, patience, perseverance. The research agrees—showing that concentration, commitment and attention-control are good for health, relationships and career outcomes.
Don’t get me wrong—as an Australian cricket fan, I’ll take the win. But there’s something to be said for long-term victories, lazy uneventful holidays, long walks, slow meals and steady focus.
In a world that’s playing checkers, those who play chess seem to have a strategic advantage. Concentration fosters patience, nurtures attention, deepens thinking and strengthens relationships. Dopamine-hunting may work as a hobby but it’s likely to fail as a way of life.
With our plans of another day of cricket on Sunday sensationally scrapped, we opted instead for a sleep-in, a swim at the beach, a slow BBQ breakfast, a long lunch, and some wine-tasting. Perhaps not as ballistic as Saturday, but no less enthralling and enriching.
Bring on the next Test! I hope it goes the distance.
Max Jeganathan is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity (CPX). He served as a political and social policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Labor governments and is undertaking a PhD in law on human dignity.