It’s an AddictionĪddiction is defined as condition in which person ingests a substance or engages in an activity that results into a persistent, compulsive dependence on a particular behavior or substance. And that is creating some very serious problems and it’s about time that we need to identify and resolve these problems before it becomes too late. This age of distraction demands our minds to multitask, something that it was not designed to do. One of the strongest tools given to the human mind is the power of focus, the mind has been naturally designed for uni-tasking not multitasking. Most of us, however, have distractions coming from all sides, and the answers to this little exercise will probably prove illuminating. In an ideal world, the answers to all those questions would be “zero” - you’d be able to read with no distractions, and completely focus on your task. How many times did you think of something you wanted to do, or check your email or other favorite distractions? How many times did you want to switch, but resisted? How many different things made a noise or visual distraction while you were reading? How many people tried to get your attention? While you were reading this (if you have been able to come so far) how many times were you distracted or tempted to switch to another task? I think, with so many things asking for our attention, it’s time we paid attention to this. But while the opportunities offered by this online world are a good thing, the constant distractions, the increasingly urgent pull on our attention, the stress of multitasking at an ever-finer granular level, the erosion of our free time and our ability to live with a modicum of peace … perhaps we didn’t realize how much this would change our lives. Sure, we knew that the Internet was proliferating, and we were excited about that. We’ve come into this Age without being aware that it was happening, or realizing its consequences. This is unprecedented, and it’s alarming. There are kids or spouses or roommates or friends, there’s the home phone, and still the mobile device is going off. There’s our home computer, asking us to do more work, sending us more messages, more distractions, social networks and shopping and reading. We get home, and there’s the television, the Netflix, the Apple TV, The gaming console constantly blaring, with 500 channels all asking for yet more attention, with 500,000 ads asking for yet more desires. We are bombarded from all sides by advertising, asking for not only attention but our desires. We have reading material, either in paper form or on the mobile device, to keep our attention occupied. We bring the mobile device, with incoming text and email messages, all needing a reply, with incoming calls that can’t be ignored. With so much competing for our attention, and so little time to focus on real work, it’s a wonder we get anything done at all and yet all of this is designed to be more productive.Īnd then we leave work, but the attack on our attention doesn’t end. And then of course it’s the new era of the mobile apps, who promise to make our lives, easy, comfortable, manageable and of course happy. All the while, several new emails have come in, waiting for a quick response. Then there’s the addicting lure of the browser, which contains not only an endless amount of reading material that can be a black hole into which we never escape, but unlimited opportunities for shopping, for chatting, for gossip and news and lurid photos and so much more. In front of us is the computer, with email and other notifications of all kinds. When we work, we have distractions coming from every direction. More and more, we are connected, we are up to our necks in the stream of information, we are in the crossfire of the battle for our attention, and we are engaged in a hounding blur of multitasking activity. Ringing phones are one thing, but email notifications, the app notifications, Twitter and Facebook messages, an array of browser tabs open, and mobile devices that are always on and always beeping are quite another. This information surplus makes it the age of Distraction.Īlthough humanity has never been free of distraction, especially for the last two centuries from the telemarketing phone calls, to the piles of paper junk mail, to TV ads, to the billboards – never have the distractions been so voluminous, so overwhelming, so intense, so persistent as they are now. It called the age of information, in fact the age of information surplus.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |