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internetworkers - Re: continuous partial attention

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  • From: Michael S Czeiszperger <czei AT webperformanceinc.com>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: continuous partial attention
  • Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 11:22:00 -0500


On Tuesday 06 February 2001 18:13, you wrote:
> Some of y'all may have read the op/ed piece in the New York Times a
> couple weeks ago about the social psychological effects of living in a
> wired world. The catchphrase that seems to have captured the zeigeist
> is the concept of "continuous partial attention." Basically, we are so
> pervasively connected to various communication devices that we spread
> our attention among several inputs at once and give our concentration to
> nothing (and no body).
>

I don't believe this is particular to any technology, but something
personality related. For example, I can imagine a business person back in the
1800s complaining they're constantly being interrupted by co-workers coming
in their office, or later in the early 1900s complaining that the phone rings
all of the time.

These types of problems are easily solved, by closing one's office door, to
taking the phone off the hook, to not checking their email every 10 minutes.

--
Michael S Czeiszperger | czei AT webperformanceinc.com
Web Performance Inc. | http://www.webperfcenter.com




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