Maggie Jackson describes our current world as an ADD (Attention Deficit Society) in her book Distracted subtitled The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age.
She worries as The Brian Lehrer Show put it that "today’s tendency to multi-tasking has us headed for a new Dark Ages, as human beings lose their ability to pay close attention".
The last part of the title might be too much gloom and doom, nevertheless she has a point. It seems that many of us confuse getting attention and making noise.
Can we ceaselessly twitter, comment on blogs, social networks and still have time for rest and reflection?
Should we sit at our computer eating junk food while catching up with the latest cooking trends?
The middle aged man that I am cannot help being concerned and sometimes irritated by mostly younger people constantly checking their instant messages and somehow unable to turn off their ‘smart’ phones.
How much connection is too much?
I suggested to a friend recently that in the not so distant future there might be a place for a trading scheme similar to carbon trading for pollution where those of us who are connected yet sensible could swap connection time for money with the addicted crowd.
What are your thoughts on the topic?
Check the Monsters & Critics Review.
Maggie Jackson also writes the Balancing Acts column for the Boston Globe.
Related: Twitter…Blackberries and the Age of Constant Interruption