Attention Society
Attention has become the new black, almost as if the old new fads of TQM, Theory of Constraints, SCRUM methodologies et al. have been broken down structurally into a single point of failure: Focus.
Wired online recently put out this article on "Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains", and the read is an interesting one and well worth it. Maggie Jackson looks closely at the neurobiological responses to attention deficit, and in a basic cause and effect type method suspects the digital age to be behind us being a lot of distracted over ADHD type people.
I tend to disagree..
To be fair, I've been thinking of writing this post all day, yet I've been distracted, distracted by work, eating, relaxing and various other things that I mark as a higher priority than my blogging.
You see, as much as we do live in an age where distractions happen often, and multitasking has become common place, I still find that I can focus for hours on end, without any dstraction, on a single task quite happily. In my mind the secret is about priority, the simple question of "Is this task the highest priority to me right now?".
My view on this is once things are prioritised they become easier to deal with, "Yes I want to do that, because it'll lead me to this" gives a lot more focus than, "yeah maybe for 30mins I'll do that and then play x-box"
I don't think we're in an age of attention deficit, I think we're in an age of lost priority.
Actually, I think we're just
Actually, I think we're just in an age of confused people; the new generation of multitasking, broadcasting, networking person has not lost the ability to concentrate on a single task, they've simply embraced a deeper level of connection with their environment. This is an aspect of life that has always been there to some extent: the hunter intent on sneaking up on the buck he has selected as his prey needs to remain alert for the lion sneaking behind /him/, after all... What others see as "interruptions" and "distractions" are not necessarily anything of the sort.
Of course, some people do suffer horribly from "information overload" or "distraction", but that's really their own fault; we now have the tools to manage the extra hosepipe of information that modern technology can pipe into our minds, and it simply remains to take advantage of them. Don't want to be distracted by e-mail? Ignore it! Don't want your cellphone interrupting you? Switch it to silent and don't answer it!
(Incidentally, how come it took me so long to find your blog? Also, uhm, implement OpenID login or something :P)
There's something about
There's something about breaking through the random information chaos, and making useful patterns from it that is beating at my mind here.
I often struggle to focus, and it's simply because there are so many wonderful things that could be taking my attention. It's weird living in a place of infinite opportunity, whilst being paralyzed because picking one makes others disappear, and yet, I suppose that this is life. So in order to create order, I set up decision making criteria on the direction which I want to come out, create a strategy, and then break that backwards tactically.
I'll install OpenID now for you.
Lets ride bikes
I tend to agree with you, please hold,
* lets go ride bikes!.mov *
Ok done.
I believe people build up a rapport / synchronicity to their environments, ever seen video of school of fish swim. There's a collective unconscious at work. Maybe there's a larger one at work: The ebb and flow of seemingly random chaos, some people are more in tune with it then others. I'm sure elements of it can be overwhelming to many on a sub conscious level.
I also believe that technology is the extension of the human body, some people might have a trickier time adjusting then others. The human machine has been slowly developing over millions of years. Cities, i-pods and consoles are very new. There are bound to be some teething problems. I like to think of is as the next level of evolution, as natural as those little ferrets who later become monkeys.
-Dave c.