Linda Stone on Continuous Partial Attention

Was too distracted to take complete notes for her intro to a Supernova panel on Attention...

To cope with complexity we have stretched attention to it's limit. it is motivated by a desire not to miss opportunities. We want to ensure our place as a live node on the network. We feel alive when we are connected. To be busy and connected is important. We are increasingly over-stimulated, overwhelmed and unfulfilled.

Email free fridays as a mechanism. Sending emails around is a terrible way to make decisions. Some ban Blackberries at meetings. Three kinds of meetings at Microsoft: free for all, one where the front of the room has to pay attention (in the back it's okay to slack) and ones where total attention is demanded.

We count on experts to filter for us. It used to be that productivity made us feel alive, now its feeling connected. Social networking where quantity of connections makes us feel connected, but the lack of meaningfulness is disconcerting. Dan Gould; I quit every social network to be able to have time to have dinner with real people. The aphrodisiac in the coming era is committed attention. Experiencing engaged attention is to feel alive, through trusted environments that enable meaningful connections. Our opportunity is to create tools and technologies that really do enhance our quality of life.

Comments

[Jeremy Zawodny]

"Was too distracted to take complete notes for her intro to a Supernova panel on Attention... "

Okay, I just laughed my ass off at that. :-)