Feeling Deep emotions about Media One and my attention skills today. In the lectorial we were given a reading ‘Hyper ad Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes” by Katherine Hayles. The 2007 piece details how a traditional way of delivering education is being re-thought in the age of networked and programmable media. The reading was handed out and we were given 10 minutes to read through it. Interesting task, as the reading was quite self-reflexive in content and brought about a sense of questioning in regards to how we were taking it in.

The piece discussed how a new generation of students were finding it difficult to fully immerse themselves in particular study ~ referred to as paying deep attention~ and were instead more drawn to a fast-paced, fragmented and highly stimulating form of cognitive engagement. Reading over the piece I felt increasingly aware of how little I was truly taking in of the reading and how much attention I was paying to the amount of attention I was paying… if that makes sense. This report focussed on a group of 12-ish year old in 2007, so people who are a couple of years younger than me. I definitely have noticed a shift in the way people learn, and I see it in myself.

With the fact that everyone owns a laptop, let alone the tiny computer that never leaves my side(iphone), it’s hard sometimes to disconnect from that world, the world of instagram or facebook – something we all know is a huge time-waster but something we all continuously subscribe to.

I know that I find it really hard to fully immerse myself into learning, especially reading dry and data heavy texts so it will be interesting how I try to combat that this year.

So maybe I’m a member of this new generation of hyper-attention learners  ~ constantly sprinkling social media use and eating (my favourite form of procrastination) throughout my learning, a very round-about way of getting things done. Looking forward to seeing how my learning/focussing plays out this semester.