Disclaimer: This blog was brought to you as I watched Spongebob, listened to music, washed clothes, surfed the internet, texted and drank some juice. Enjoy!
Every morning I wake up I reach for two things—my phone and the remote control. I check text messages, missed calls and emails on my phone. While the local or national news is going on in the background. It has gotten to the point where I don’t like silence there has to be some kind of noise or something taking place in the background. Whenever I go to sleep the T.V. is on but on low.
When I was watching “May I Have Your Attention Please” I realized that she was talking about me. In the beginning Linda Stone asked a series of questions and I could answer yes to every single one of them. Stone went on to talk about continuous partial attention(CPA) and how it is different from simple multitasking. With CPA your full attention is never fully given to one subject or task that you’re doing causing a artificial sense of constant crises. The brain is always thinking that there is something to be done and never powers down. Even when you’re sleeping your brain is in full effect thinking about what needs to be done tomorrow and the days following. Stone goes on to describe how CPA can leave one feeling unfulfilled, over stimulated and over whelmed.
Now with simple multitasking its more productivity centered. Stone describes how one or both activities are automatic/routine. For example talking on the phone and washing dishes it is communication centered vs productivity centered. Both activities require cognition.
Then Katherine Hayes goes a little further and talks about hyper attention and deep attention. Hyper attention is more adaptive than deep attention and the example she gives is an air traffic controller. The traffic controller needs to be able to switch between screens and change tasks quickly.
What things or tasks require deep attention though? Reading a book? Writing a paper? Studying for a test? What? What activities in your life require a person just to stop and focus on that one event?
Hayes goes on to explain how these things are creating even shorter attention spans in generation m. So many children are being diagnosed with ADD/ADHD that it’s a quick solution and diagnoses. I believe that it’s a easy way out for parents and doctors so they can just give children medicine to calm down but that’s another topic for another day. Hayes goes on mention that the trend in hyper attention will accelerate as the years pass and society calls for us to do even more task at once.
What I got out of this weeks reading and video is that even though various levels of multitasking may be necessary its still being over done. I made a comment to someone that I feel over stimulated and how I want to disappear from this place if only for a day to collect my thoughts. I also said how I have so many things going on at once that I feel spread then. I would rather do one project well at a time than do million projects at the same time and they turn out mediocre.
Hyper attention or deep attention which is better? Simple multitasking or continuous partial attention which one is the lesser of two evils?
When I write anything I break it down into small paragraphs so that one the reader will understand and two to hold their attention. Also, over the years my attention span as grown shorter and shorter. I love reading but I just can't find the time to stop and read a book. If I stopped how would things get done? I'm laughing to myself as I type this too.
I think that I have rambled on long enough and I believe my ADD truly came into effect. So if I haven’t held your attention long enough I hope you enjoy this little video.
Awesome presentation by the way! Like we said in class, I'm not sure one form of attention is better than the other. I think in order to function in today's world of technology, we need to have both forms and be able to switch between the two. I would love to know how the internet comes into play in your multitasking because I remember you tweeting how you didn't like twitter and you felt too connected. How did this play into your multitasking or was it a separate thing?
ReplyDeletegreat post and presentation! I really like what you said in the second-to-last paragraph. Do you think the first person to ever write a book and split it into chapters and then split those chapters in sections, and sections into paragraphs was thinking about a generation years down the line that wouldn't be able to get through more than one or two paragraphs at a time without being distracted by something else?
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