The new generation of recorders capture longer responses from ground or structural arrays. Within the last decade, many records released by various data centers exhibit longer and longer durations of shaking – allowing studies of longer earthquake shaking responses of buildings and/or other structures. In this paper, I examine the causes and implications of longer shaking of the structures using recent examples. Two particular issues constitute the scope of this paper. First, longer shaking duration in structures usually means slower dissipation of shaking energy. Critical damping values recently determined from response records of tall (>10 stories) buildings, in particular, are found to be around 2.5%, much lower than the value of 5% widely assumed and utilized during the design and analysis processes. Thus, when the measured critical damping percentage is in the vicinity of or less than 2.5% or less [which is the latest recommendation of Los Angeles Tall Buildings Design Council [LATBDC, 2015] as well as Tall Building Initiative [TBI] of Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center [PEER , 2017], the 5% damped design response spectrum for design and analysis analyses/design becomes a liberal criteria, with wide implications for existing as well as new and future designs. For example, what needs to be done to a tall building designed with a criterion of 5% critical damping percentage but exhibits 2.5% damping after building construction is finished and is in service? Retrofit possibilities exist but are costly. Second, many of the long records from tall buildings exhibit a beating effect, caused by combination of low critical damping percentages and closely coupled translational and torsional frequencies [Borosheck and Mahin, 1991; Çelebi and others, 2014]. A beating effect yields prolonged responses and discomfort to occupants as well as adding to low-cycle fatigue. Two examples (one from US and one from Japan) demonstrate both the first and second issues.