Attentiveness (Second Thoughts)
Continuous Partial Attention. The dominant attention paradigm. Did you even know that there were attention paradigms? I did not until I ran across this. Keep on reading and see if this sounds familiar.
Continuous Partial Attention. The dominant attention paradigm. Did you even know that there were attention paradigms? I did not until I ran across this. Keep on reading and see if this sounds familiar.
“To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter. We pay continuous partial attention in an effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. We are always in high alert when we pay continuous partial attention” – Linda Stone and the Attention Project.
The definition of the paradigm causes me to have a framework of what I feel when I know that someone is not paying full attention to me in a conversation. They are paying partial attention to me. There are times when I pay partial attention to someone and they can sense this. So this definition also convicts how I live. I think even my 2 month old can sense it when I take one of my hands off of her and she gets upset – she wants both hands on. Full attention.
How does this paradigm affect our relationships? How does it affect someone else’s sense of being cared for or even their sense of worth? What am I communicating when I pay partial attention to another person? When I receive partial attention it tends to make me feel like I am unimportant, like I am a waste of that person’s time and they’re just waiting for something better. I think we can all relate to feeling that way at times.
Being a young adult and having worked with college students and young adults for over 9 years I recognize and resonate with this paradigm. I have also witnessed the consequences in my own life and the lives of others as we live in this mode.
It can definitely have its benefits but Stone goes on to say “in large doses, it contributes to a stressful lifestyle, to operating in crisis management mode, and to a compromised ability to reflect, to make decisions, and to think creatively.” Wow.
A few additional thoughts. Another negative consequence
could be that we miss what is actually needed. We miscommunicate and misunderstand. We cannot go deeper and understand the root cause or feeling whether in another person or in ourselves. We cannot hear from God because we do not wait to hear. Our minds are frenzied and we’re running on adrenaline. The mind and body cannot and does not rest. According to Stone it leads to a compromised ability to think creatively and make decisions. Also, if we’re constantly skimming the surface of life we never let something steep or simmer and we lose flavor and joy in life. I wonder if this paradigm gives us a nice escape from the depths and messiness of who we are and who others are. We don’t want to get real with ourselves, others or God.
I’m not sure yet if I agree with the below statement entirely but the last line is true.
“Attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit. We can enhance or augment our attention with practices like meditation and exercise, diffuse it with technologies like email and Blackberries, or alter it with pharmaceuticals. In the end, though, we are fully responsible for how we choose to use this extraordinary tool.”
How will you use your attention?
