It’s become a truism that our interactions with technology are changing the way we think and act. But the big question is how exactly we’re being changed. Some say it’s evolving us into higher functioning humans, while others claim our hyper-multitasking and reliance on technology as an outboard brain is dumbing us way down.
Another missive from the negative camp has come around -Maggie Jackson, Author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, says that our ability to deeply focus and pay attention is being swept away by our “cybercentric” society.
She claims that attention is hard-wired into our brains, a discrete “organ system” even, and that the current tech-enabled culture of interruption and distraction may be disabling our ability to concentrate and think creatively. Even more concerning is her assertion that we’re also wired towards interruption.
Jackson explains to Wired why we’re predisposed to distraction and how it affects us:
We are programmed to be interrupted. We get an adrenalin jolt when orienting to new stimuli: Our body actually rewards us for paying attention to the new. So in this very fast-paced world, it’s easy and tempting to always react to the new thing. But when we live in a reactive way, we minimize our capacity to pursue goals.
…This degree of interruption is correlated with stress and frustration and lowered creativity. That makes sense. When you’re scattered and diffuse, you’re less creative. When your times of reflection are always punctured, it’s hard to go deeply into problem-solving, into relating, into thinking.
…Interruptions are correlated with stress, and a cascade of stress hormones accompany that state of being. Stress, frustration and lowered creativity are pretty toxic. And there are studies showing how the environment shapes brain development in kids.
So, how then to best handle the digital distraction avalanche? Jackson says we need to re-shape and streamline our environment to encourage focus and quiet. Which is great advice -but for those of us that live, whether out of desire or necessity, in a constantly shifting info-stream, the challenge is how to maintain focus even if it’s for really short bursts of time.
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Great post.
I’d been thinking about this and invented a response to this – called “Ignormation”
I can train you in this arcane art but will have to charge.
February 19th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Also – how can we use this attention-shifting propensity for good? And is there a limit to all of it, a certain amount of distraction where we plateau and can’t process any more incoming info? (If so, I think I’m almost there…)
February 19th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
@ Floyd – O wise master – please teach me ignore-fu!!!!
@Christine – great question. Limit wise, hmmm. I’ve been chatting with some people on Twitter about brining smart drugs (amino acids/vitamins etc) back to enhance cognition/brain function in the face of processing burnout. The amino acid DMAE is working well.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I’m a conscientious objector in the war on interruptions. If all interruptions are bad, then outlaw fire alarms because, unless you were planning a fire, all they can do is interrupt you. Interruptions are part of a broader, intertwined set of social, technological, psychological, and process-oriented factors. Dark Age? Only if the folks monitoring your local power plant turn off all interrupting devices.
At a broader level though I’m very much a believer that attention management is a very useful approach and that organizations and individuals can take real steps to manage their attention better.
For enterprises see my Enterprise Attention Management conceptual architecture at http://knowledgeforward.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/my-attention-management-system-conceptual-architecture/
For individuals my Personal Attention Management tips at http://knowledgeforward.wordpress.com/2006/11/29/personal-attention-management-tips/
February 19th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Craig, all I can do is bow down before you!
Nice.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Whatever happened to going outside to play? Do we need cybermoms to tell us when we’ve had our fill? Perhaps someone can engineer an iSelf-Destruct application that shuts us out of our devices when we’ve been on for too long.
February 20th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Ha, they actually have a Google Labs feature that alerts you when you’ve been on gmail for a specified chunk of time. It tells you to go out and take a walk. I imagine the kind of person who would feel compelled to enable the feature is the kind of person who would click ‘ignore’ every time it popped up, though. That kind of person is me. :/
February 20th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Its fun jumping all over the place….. how else would be get to see, do, smell, see, draw, draw, draw, see so much. :)
February 21st, 2009 at 12:49 am
Its fun jumping all over the place….. how else would be get to see, do, smell, see, draw, draw, draw, see so much. :)
Interruptions are doors to other opportunities!
February 21st, 2009 at 12:51 am