Social Media, Technology, and the Paradox of

Attention

By Nadia Yau @nahdeeyah

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Social media, technology, and numerous web and hardware applications

have drastically changed the way we live.

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Now, we have constant and almost

instant access to information, through an endless variety of

platforms and resources.

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For example…cell phones: In 2010, the number of worldwide mobile subscriptions surpassed 5

billion, which is about 70% of the world’s population.

Source: http://blog.mobitv.com/2011/03/year-of-mobile-how-mobile-has-changed.html

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As of 2011, there are 500,000,000 active Facebook users – approximately 1 in every 13 people on Earth, and half of them are logged in on any given day.

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

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In March of 2011, Twitter reached its 10 billionth

Tweet. Source: http

://community.pathoftheblueeye.com/sites/default/files/community_images/twitter-infographic.jpg

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There are 133,000,000 total blogs in the

blogosphere, and 27% of those blogging update their site 3 to 4 times a

week. Source: http

://www.intac.net/breakdown-of-the-blogosphere/

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We are perpetually seeking and consuming information…have we ever stopped to think about what

information consumes?

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“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information

creates a poverty of attention...”

- Polymath Economist Herbert A. Simon

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As beneficiaries of the greatest information boom in the history of the world, are we suffering

from a correspondingly serious poverty of attention? Are we terminally distracted by the

overabundance of information sources that surround us?

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Our jobs, leisure time, and

academics are now increasingly

tied to digital media and

technology.

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It’s how we do business…95% of business decision makers worldwide use social networks

to some extent. Source: http://www.searchandsocial.com/images/social-media-statistics.jpg

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It’s how we record our leisure time – a record-breaking 750 million photos were uploaded on Facebook over 2011’s New Year’s weekend.

Source: http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

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It’s how we learn…48% of young Americans stated that they find out about news through

Facebook. Source: http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/

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And it’s how we stay connected to all these things even when we’re on the go…Between 2009 and 2010, social networking app use

increased by 240%. Source: http://blog.mobitv.com/2011/03/year-of-mobile-how-mobile-has-changed.html

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So how do we adapt to this new world order of multi-tasking and distraction?

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How are these ramifications – from psychological stress and symptoms of addiction, to

opportunities to strengthen and express friendship and community – impacting our ability

to work, live, and learn in and beyond online platforms?

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Attention is a limited resource, and our moment-by-moment choice of attentional targets determines the shape of our lives.

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In a culture

of Blackberrys and news crawls

and numerous Firefox tabs – where

we exist in a kind

of elective ADHD – we need to invest

our attention

wisely.

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Rather than cutting these technologies out of our lives entirely, we need guidelines on how to use

it appropriately in our homes, schools, and workplaces as to allow for more productive and

measured use. Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101124/social-media-studies-101128/

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As Dr. Bruce Ballon from the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto states, it is all

about balance. Source: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101124/social-media-studies-101128/

Image by Maldita Mona After all, one moment of

distraction can be the key to a

creative process; one moment of

judicious unmindfulness can inspire a thousand

hours of mindfulness.

Image by icathingIn this era of rapidly shifting environments, maybe restlessness will be an

advantage.

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“Digital natives” operate constantly on “continuous partial attention,” and though they

might have more trouble concentrating on a complex task from beginning to end than their

elders, they can do things the previous generation can’t…

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…such as conducting 20 different conversations

simultaneously across six different media, switching

between attentional targets in a way that has been

deemed unproductive in the past, or sifting and filtering through information rapidly.

Perhaps what we need to recognise what the web-threatened punditry often fails to recognize: That focus is a paradox—it has distraction built

into it.

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In the flights of irresponsible responsibility, the digital native may be able to harness the power

of distraction, and attain the paradoxical, Zenlike state of focused distraction.