New! Distracted Featured in "Grace Notes" Exhibit at New York Society Library from January 19 to February 22 - New York City
Tag Archives: attention
« Older posts

Excerpt from Distracted in Latest Issue of New Philosopher

Mar
7,
2023
0Comments

I’m excited that the renowned global philosophy-design magazine New Philosopher is publishing an excerpt from the introduction to Distracted in its latest issue. In this excerpt, I argue that rising levels of inattention and splintered focus are indicative of a dark age. “It’s a darkening time when we think togetherness means keeping one eye, hand, or ear on our . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Impact of Technology // Tagged: , , ,

A CNN.com Blog: Does It Matter Where and When We Are?

Oct
28,
2012
0Comments

I was asked to write this CNN.com blog as part of their recent series on our mobile society:

 

Tonight, as my husband stands in our bedroom, fingers whirling across his smartphone and eyes glued to its tiny screen, I have no idea “where” he is. Is he checking the score of his beloved home . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Family Life, Impact of Technology // Tagged: , , , ,

Are We Losing the Magic of Play in a Digital World?

Mar
9,
2012
2Comments

We began by picturing a young Eleanor Roosevelt teaching immigrant children to dance in the very room where we were gathered. Long ago, a dashing young Franklin D. Roosevelt would come to escort her home. I could see in my mind’s eye his jaunty straw hat, the long twirling skirts, an awkward young woman brave . . . read more

Categories: Family Life, Impact of Technology, Reflection // Tagged: , , , , ,

Of Einstein and Distracted Driving … and Writing

Feb
7,
2012
0Comments

I shouldn’t kvetch about this, because then I’ll seem like the attention police – a role that I never have wanted to play. Distraction can be a great thing – a creative break, an unconscious impulse to steer in another mental direction, a welcome intrusion from a friend.

But Distraction isn’t the title of my . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Impact of Technology // Tagged: , , , ,

Does Self-Control Come in an App?

Jan
30,
2012
2Comments

My HuffPost blog from the weekend on the pros and cons of new apps that screen out digital distractions for us:

Last night, I got a PTA alert about a software application that allows users to block access to email and websites such as Facebook, while retaining use of the larger web for self-selected time . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Family Life, Impact of Technology // Tagged: , , , , , ,

Does Quiet Un-Nerve Us? A Muse on Tinker Tailor Soldier…

Jan
8,
2012
0Comments

First one, then another… at the showing of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that I attended last weekend, numerous people walked out of the movie. By the third or fourth exodus, I noticed that viewers were exiting in the film’s most still moments: when the camera lingers on retired spy George Smiley, pensively sitting alone in . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Family Life, Impact of Technology, Reflection // Tagged: , , , ,

These Great Sorrows

Nov
11,
2011
3Comments

Is hyper-busyness a form of sloth? It seems beyond paradoxical to consider our efficient, connected, mobile days even remotely… lazy. But both medieval philosophers and early Buddhist practitioners warned of restlessness and busyness as slothful, because amidst such hyper-ness we tend to avoid what’s deep and important. Think about it. Madly ticking items off our . . . read more

Category: Reflection // Tagged: , , , ,

The Expansion of Experience – The Home/Work Blur Today

Jun
4,
2011
0Comments

Just got back from the Business Marketing Association’s annual conference in Chicago, where I spoke on a general session panel entitled “The @Work State of Mind.” Rick Segal, president of the ad firm GyroHSR, moderated.

The boundaries between home and work are gone – that’s not news. But we’re still dealing with the fallout. At . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Family Life, Work-life // Tagged: , , ,

Information Overload and Our Reliance on the Machine

Jun
3,
2011
0Comments

Information overload is a problem that’s hard to pick apart. Haven’t we been deluged with information for hundreds of years? How can we turn down the data spigot without losing out on opportunities? Is anybody thinking creatively on this front?

A new book, Overload! How Too Much Information if Hazardous to Your Organization, by Jonathan . . . read more

Category: Uncategorized // Tagged: , , , ,

The Attention Movement – Something’s Stirring

Sep
15,
2009
3Comments

Months ago, Cali Williams Yost had a wish. In her FastCompany blog, she hoped that Distracted would start an attention movement similar to the new environmentalism sparked by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. And indeed, wherever I speak, people everywhere are asking, ‘where do we start? How do we regain our focus and spark . . . read more

Categories: Distracted, Family Life // Tagged: , ,
« Older posts