Email marketing might be entering a mid-life crisis.

According to Entrepreneur, 2017 marks its 40th birthday, with 1978 cited as the year when the first marketing email was delivered. The sender, the story goes, was Gary Thuerk, an employee of Digital Equipment Corporation -- an infamous legend, of sorts, who's referred to by some as the "father of spam."

Yet -- somehow -- it seems that email marketing is doing a better job than a lot of other digital communication at prolonging a viewer's attention span.

The stereotypical "mid-life crisis" often involves change that comes after years of overall evolution and improvement. And in a way, email marketing isn't so different. It's gone through a number of modifications to make it better, more user-friendly, and less spammy since 1978. And now, Litmus reports, the average time spent reading an email has increased by nearly 7% since 2011.

But how is that possible, given our oft-cited dwindling attention spans? As it turns out, email marketing might be an exception to that rule for a number of reasons, ranging from improved sending platforms to more mobile-friendly consumption experiences to generally better content.

Want the details? You're in luck. Litmus breaks it down in this the handy infographic below.

How to Cure a Short Attention Span With Email