2006DEC161158
'... Technology has improved my life OR technology has harmed my quality of life ...'
Linda Stone coined the term continuous partial attention almost 10 years ago. It is a learned coping mechanism to enable people to be 'just another node on the network'. As we cope with more and more interruptions we loose sense of what is important and what is not important.
'... I pay full attention to people when they talk to me, when I am in meetings, when I work OR I pay partial attention to what I'm doing and I'm scanning my devices or software for other inputs ...'
This article (and another I saw) records fatalities as a result of continuous partial attention. The article here records how a young mother out running with a young child in a pram, stops to answer a mobile phone call, writes down some notes. Only to find the pram, child nowhere to be seen. The outcome was tragic becuase the pram was found 1 hour later after extensive searching, upside down in a lake about 100m away. The child was deceased.
'... Technology sets me free OR technology enslaves me ...'
So where does this leave you? Hopefully you might realise technology is but a tool. You can choose to ignore it where does not matter and understand what your true priorities are.
You can listen to Linda Stones ITConversation, 'Attention: The Real Aphrodisiac', here (24m, 11 mb, recorded 03JUL2006).
2006DEC161158
'... Technology has improved my life OR technology has harmed my quality of life ...'
Linda Stone coined the term continuous partial attention almost 10 years ago. It is a learned coping mechanism to enable people to be 'just another node on the network'. As we cope with more and more interruptions we loose sense of what is important and what is not important.
'... I pay full attention to people when they talk to me, when I am in meetings, when I work OR I pay partial attention to what I'm doing and I'm scanning my devices or software for other inputs ...'
This article (and another I saw) records fatalities as a result of continuous partial attention. The article here records how a young mother out running with a young child in a pram, stops to answer a mobile phone call, writes down some notes. Only to find the pram, child nowhere to be seen. The outcome was tragic becuase the pram was found 1 hour later after extensive searching, upside down in a lake about 100m away. The child was deceased.
'... Technology sets me free OR technology enslaves me ...'
So where does this leave you? Hopefully you might realise technology is but a tool. You can choose to ignore it where does not matter and understand what your true priorities are.
You can listen to Linda Stones ITConversation, 'Attention: The Real Aphrodisiac', here (24m, 11 mb, recorded 03JUL2006).