Your attention please !
Digital tools appeal to us everywhere, all the time. Is the question of loss of attention the new disease of the century?
You have to read Matthiew Crawford. After being noticed by publishing the enigmatic Praise of the carburetor, a book in which he praised manual work, the American author, philosopher and mechanic at the same time, recidivated some time later with the publication of Contact - Why We have lost the world, and how to find it [1]. In this last work the theme was quite different; In the case of informational abundance under the effect of digital, and its direct consequence on our brains (on average, the 18-24 years consult their smartphone 82 times per day). For the author, we are experiencing a "crisis of attention" which manifests itself in an ever-increasing need for simulation.
Wondering about the reasons for this fragmentation of our mental life that would put us at the mercy of the exploiters of "brain time available", Matthiew Crawford analyzes the impression that we can all feel no longer master of Our attention. The latter becomes a precious and limited resource and therefore difficult to preserve and defend against those who want to capture it to better monetize it (we recall the words of Patrick Le Lay explaining that his job was to "sell time Of brain available "to advertisers. [2]) Examples to convince yourself?
Of course, all forms of advertising aimed at drawing attention to all the screens present in our lives [3] but also the technological sophistication of everyday objects. This is the case with our cars equipped with sensors and screens of all kinds. The latter isolate us from the road itself and draw our attention to other types of information, more or less important according to the moment. Sitting at the wheel - and waiting for the advent of the autonomous car, which will perhaps give us our attention - the road becomes a simple element of decor and driving an abstract experience punctuated by multiple data: emails, conditions of Traffic, routes, weather ... which are displayed in real time on the dashboard.
Do we have to conclude that, in order to fully capture our attention and to anchor ourselves in reality, that of a direct relationship with the road, we should return to cars stripped of all technologies? Obviously not, but that does not prevent the fact that we live in a world of information superabundance that captures the main part of our attention.
Multi-tasking
Many studies have focused on this crisis of attention. All or almost all start from the observation that this "infobesity" makes our brain unsuitable for sorting [5]. Aside from the fact that it is impossible to synthesize this uninterrupted flow of data, the other perverse effect is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to control the time spent on our online activities. Everything makes us connect, everywhere, all the time because of the presence of wifi networks, 3G, 4G ... but also the simplicity of the uses of these digital tools designed to facilitate the famous customer experience. In the United States, specialized designers work on what is called "attention design", like the Persuasive Tech Lab at Standford University [6], which teaches art and Digital products capable of capturing the attention of their users.
Another characteristic of our attention is that it is limited in terms of both time and processing capacity. It is on the basis of this observation that the psychologist and economist, Herbert Simon, Nobel Prize for Economics in 1978 (we are at the beginning of the Internet for the general public) highlights the limited rationality of individuals. Since our perception apparatus does not admit more than 1,000 bits per second and probably less and while every human organism lives in an environment that produces millions of bits of new information every second .... It follows that the reason can only be limited and only works with incomplete information. "[7]
In other words, in industrialized countries, the problem is not access to information, but the time available for dealing with it. If these works have subsequently been enriched by the contribution of neurosciences, psychology or philosophy ... more recent studies believe that the regular use of the Internet makes us lose our ability to concentrate in favor of an attitude Of generalized zapping [8]. This state, also called "multi-tasking", illustrates the fact that under the effect of multiple solicitations - mainly numerical - the focus of our attention varies and we have to do several things at the same time: liker, give our screw , Respond to a message, share our point of view on social networks .... In short, to disperse our attention into a fragment of multiple actions made simultaneously.
Our attention, a valuable asset
Without playing the Cassandra of this new digital world, it is urgent to regain control of our attention to extricate ourselves from this regime of permanent distraction. Everything seems to indicate that such an objective is difficult to reach, even utopian, as we have become accustomed to this world of permanent digital solicitations. Nevertheless, there are areas for progress and deserve consideration:
From a technological and legal point of view, voices are heard to create a new form of digital ethics. This would involve the appearance of technological tools with programmable interfaces to stop receiving this uninterrupted stream of notifications. Another proposal, which is more real, is the reality of the coming into force of the European regulation on personal data in May 2018 [9]. This regulation will oblige companies to integrate data protection into the computer code of digital tools. This so-called "privacy by design" rule will allow the market to adapt and people to realize the importance of this digital influence on their lives, including the capture of data. Let us hope that this initiative can be the cornerstone of an ethical vision of digital technology.
On an individual level, there is no miracle. Only a mastery of oneself allows us to "take control of our attention, in particular that towards which it is oriented ... It requires a reappropriation - or even a detachment - of the digital to counter these logics, making it a healthier space Free from market logic. "[10] For this, there is no specific regulation to enact except to adopt obvious gestures, however difficult to achieve, such as extinguishing his screen or, for the more addicted, follow a cure of "digital detox". If this were not enough, it would still be time to turn to those more and more people who are thinking about "time well employed" like the American Tristan Harris and his movement "Time well spent." [11]
And then, if these ideas were not enough, there are always known recipes which for centuries seem to have shown their interest in capturing and attracting the attention of the Men while making their creativity grow. Rousseau was not mistaken in this, when he wrote in his fifth promenade of the Reveries of the Solitary Walker: "The ebb and flow of this water, its continuous but inflated sound Intervals continuously striking my ear, and my eyes supplemented the internal movements which reverie extinguished in me, and sufficed to make me feel with pleasure my existence without bothering to think. "
[1] http://www.editionsladecouverte.fr/catalogue/index-Contact-9782707186621.html
[2] http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/culture/20040710.OBS2633/le-lay-nous-vendons-du-temps-de-cerveau.html
[5] https://rslnmag.fr/innovation/cerveau-flux-numeriques-attention-jean-philippe-lachaux/
[6] http://captology.stanford.edu/
[7] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Simon
[8] http://www.internetactu.net/2009/01/23/nicolas-carr-est-ce-que-google-nous-rend-idiot/
[10] https://digital-society-forum.orange.com/fr/les-forums/552-numerique_notre_attention_en_question
I read this on my phone.
and??
caught my attention.
lol
my bullshit dedector is off the scale hahahh
I love your post name! Following just for that haha!
yup I almost run into people with their head down on the phone. My wife actually watched a lady walk into the ocean off a dock, full pant suit, glasses, briefcase and phone
Hahaha that the effect of mismanaging new tech
Agree
Use of Mobile phone have great psychological effet on children. Specially who plays mobile games every time. Its irritate them easily. They loose their temper. They don't want to eat. They loss concentration. They neglet others and it isolate them from physical world .Huge use of mobile effect on Brain and eyes According To research.