In the first lecture in this class, we read through an extract written by N Katherine Hayles: “Hyper and Deep Attention: The generational Divide in Cognitive Modes”. It discussed the differences between “Deep Attention” and “Hyper Attention” and the trends in our society that seem to change when people are more engaging with the latter.

I’ll be honest when I state that I didn’t really understand what was being said in this article, probably due to the fact that it was my first day at University and I was a bit restless and kind of skimmed over it. But from the jist of it, I interpreted the “deep attention” to refer to concentrating on something for a longer period of time, where as “hyper attention” refers to jittery movement of bouncing around from task to task.

I tend to think I’m someone that can associate more with the “deep attention” users, as I tend to be someone that really likes to focus on something for a longer period of time. For example, I could spend hours making a beat on my computer or listen to multiple albums of work by my favourite artists. However to that end, I can just as easily flick the switch and become hyper attentive, using my phone and then jumping to do something else. I think the youth of today tends to be a bit more hyper active, but that it kind of slows down as you get older.

Then again I could be entirely wrong about what the text meant about these two terms in the first place…