Which method of focus is better? Which allows us to be more focused, efficient, and fast? If you’d posed these questions fifty years ago, the answer would have leaned greatly towards deep attention. If you’d asked this question a hundred years ago, you’d be asked how you invented time travel. However, as evidenced by discussions in both the Media One Lectorial and the practical, with the onset of new media such as the internet, smart phones and social media, the concentration methods of most of us have become more superficial.
Raise your hand if you regularly scroll down your newsfeed on your phone whilst watching the latest episode of I’m A Celebrity. Or if you’re constantly checking Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram whilst you’re trying to write a blog post for your university course.
We are a distracted generation. Always busy, multitasking, perhaps more productive, but also easily bored and side tracked. Yet it is unfair to say that deep attention is entirely out of vogue. One of the last truly immersive experiences is going to the cinema, which is still practiced and revered by many if Hollywood’s billion dollar profits are any indicator. Video games also require a lot of our attention; they provide visual, audial stimulation, as well as active participation from the player, and the risk/reward feedback that provides deep engagement. I, for example, lost many, many, hours of my youth deeply engaged in the Sims 2, not noticing the passing of time until my fingers grew cold and it became too dark to see the keyboard.
One could also argue that we can be deeply attentive towards technological devices as well. A recent study found that we may be rendered temporarily deaf when engaged in mobile devices. Anyone who has been deeply lost in a book can attest to becoming ignorant of their surroundings and losing track of time, which the study suggest can also occur when people are using mobile phones. Therefore, the use of modern technology can also be a form of deep attention, just like reading a book.
I believe that it depends on the person. The question, “are you deep attentive or hyper attentive?” is moot. We may all be capable of changing our modes of attention to suit the task at hand, but modern media certainly often asks us to be hyper attentive.