I’ve had ample time to process Katherine Hayles’s ‘Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes’ and have come to a few conclusions.

I think it is extraordinary that this was published nearly 10 years ago. Hayles clearly saw the warning signs of the future, such as “the 6.5 hours young people spend with media per day” (which has now probably nearly doubled) and how we are moving away from traditional methods of study. We are now well and truly in the midst of the Information Age and will continue to lose our tolerance for Deep Attention.

This piece also reiterates my belief that our generation are the worst. The departure from Deep Attention has single-handedly ruined art. The majority of millennials don’t want to engage with a challenging art film. Hell, they don’t even want to go into a cinema where they are forced to abandon their phones and sit quietly in a dark room for 90 minutes. Literature is a dead art form. The music they respond to is Top 40 banger hits.

Worrying times already. Worrying times ahead.