The second reading for this week, Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes by N. Katherine Hayles, explores the difference between two modes of focus and makes the argument that current and future students will default to hyper attention mode, in which they take in multiple sources of information and favour stimulation over deeply focussing on a single object (which is how students of previous generations operated).

Despite generally living in a mode of hyper attention – I often listen to music and a podcast at the same time, for example – when I’m sitting down to achieve a particular task, such as writing something or reading a long-form article, I find that my productivity suffers unless I can enter deep focus, removing all distractions.

I think I prefer a mixture of both hyper and deep attention, and I’m pretty good at switching between the two depending on context. A poll in our workshop this week demonstrated that most students in my class consider themselves either hyper attentive or, at worst, somewhere between the two. Very few people considered themselves deeply attentive. This was not surprising considering the reading discussed the fact that younger people prefer hyper attentive modes, and so as today’s young students grow up to become adults deep attention will start to become quite rare.

This is a result of multiple factors, some well-defined and some not at all, but a major one is the proliferation of technology and the internet – young people are now accustomed to having an entire world of knowledge and entertainment at their fingertips 24 hours a day, so learning material has to be engaging and varied or students will just tune it out.

It also strikes me that even deep attention has to, by necessity, involve some of the techniques associated with hyper attention. When reading a long text (for example a novel), it’s very rare to actually consume such a text in one sitting – so your brain already has to be able to re-focus and re-familiarise itself with its content each time the book is picked up. This ability will only be developed further the more one practices hyper attention.