My present way to
spend free time at home: the TV on while having interspersed conversations with
my housemates; my lap top open beside me checking out factoids related to what
I’m watching ( I usually have about 6 – 10 browsers open); Facebook and Skype
open so messages and IM’s are coming through, and my cell, old faithful,
bleeping out texts and calls at any given moment . Seriously, I’m not fully
invested in any one thing I’m doing because there’s so many options at once. Now first things first, I do like constant access to
information, but I do remember life being simpler. The present day subdivide of
attention has me wondering whether present technologies are creating a new variant
of attention deficient disorder?
The reality is
it’s getting harder to do solitary things when you’re never really by yourself.
Growing up outside of the city without cable we had three channels. I talked to
one person at a time in person or on the phone.
My attention was directed to the moment. Now the possibility is always present to
contact or be contacted by someone else that isn’t there. I blogged sometime
ago about the change of hostels and the travel culture because of lap tops and
Facebook, now that effect is even more prevalent. (link: http://iwasjustthinkingsomething.blogspot.com/2011/05/changing-face-of-travel.html)
For a brief recap, I mentioned that travelers
were choosing to communicate with people back home rather than engaging with other people right there in the hostel. Outside
of travel that phenomenon is happening more often when people get together
socially. Ever notice how people react when a lap top is around? Usually at one
time or another during an evening everyone will make their way to the laptop at
least once, maybe more, to check messages. That's not even commenting on smart phones. People seem held away from
in person connection by pseudo conversations with people not present.
2011 definitely was
a hall mark year in terms of information dissemination. This was the year when
the internet and social media led to the overhaul of many repressive Middle Eastern governments. These were meteoric
events and filled my heart with pride at the possibility of overcoming top -down
repression. Never has there been a time
when more information was available at our finger tips. The world is opening up
to us and changing because of this accessibility. However, the inquiring mind
must at least wonder if the information available is becoming somewhat trite do
to the sheer amount? If there are mountains of potential information to sift
through then what is the barometer for uncovering whether that information is
important? Instant information availability is becoming another entertainment
commodity and is having the effect of defocusing our attention...
Ten years ago, I remember siphoning
through the same 80 channels again and again when I was bored – like a never ending Sisyphean circle. Now sometimes I find myself siphoning down a Facebook news feed
only to do it again minutes later, or checking web sites for content updates
that haven’t arrived yet... the phenomena is similar to aimless channel surfing.
We’ve stepped into
the ultimate sound bite information age. Previously whole books were digested
to expand ones view of reality now it’s so much more common to collect internet
factoids. Information is gathered by checking something quick on Wikipedia, IMDB,
or seeing how people’s lives are from their Facebook page. To steal one of cultural
theorist Neal Postman’s catch phrases – “Are we amusing ourselves to Death”? When
are you focused on doing any one thing when there are quick information fixes
that could pull you away from that task? One sound bite of information is in
battle against the next. Surely, I’m not alone when I feel that pull? I
read fewer books now then I use to and sometimes even have trouble watching a
full movie or program without checking something else in the middle. My attention feels subdivided between two to three trivial things and held at arm’s
length from the moment. That is what I see as my new type of ADD; an inability
to focus on any one strand of information when others are so immediately accessible.
