TikTok Didn’t Invent Short Attention Spans — Medieval Markets Did

You think short attention spans are new?

Try selling a chicken in the middle of a medieval street market.

Noise. Smells. Juggling acts. Sword swallowers. Merchants shouting over each other in 10 different languages.

If you didn’t stop a stranger in three seconds or less, they were gone — off to the next spice stall or puppet show.

So, how did they do it?

They didn’t have clickbait. They had pattern-breaks:

• Singing the product pitch so rhythm cut through the noise

• Using props — like tossing an apple in the air — to catch movement in someone’s peripheral vision

• Borrowing someone else’s audience — starting your pitch inside the juggler’s crowd, then pulling people to your stall

• Overpromising an experience and delivering it on the spot (“Best wine in Paris — taste now!”)

Swap the chickens and apples for your product, and you’ll see it:

TikTok, Meta, YouTube Shorts… they’re just new street markets.

And the lesson?

The job hasn’t changed in 700 years. 

Your ad’s first task isn’t to sell. It’s to stop the scroll.

Once you’ve earned their attention, only then do you get to earn their trust — and their money.

—Peter