Attention and Information

I'm hearing more and more about how people are worrying about the explosion of information that analysts and executives must consume, as well as the increasing variety of sources from which that information comes. However, I've always thought it's not the amount of information that's changing, it's how we filter it to find what's relevant.

This article from The Aporetic states:

"Peo­ple often argue that we have too much infor­ma­tion and too lit­tle atten­tion; that this is a con­di­tion of being “mod­ern.” But the oppo­site may be true: that atten­tion is a human con­stant and that it con­stantly seeks new forms. Where there’s “sur­plus atten­tion” we always come up with things to occupy it."

via The Aporetic

and Boston Globe

"I sometimes worry about my attention span, but not for long" - Herb Caen

Further reading into this subject has revealed that this is not a new problem, it is years old. It's procrastination in disguise, and it is incredibly addictive and slows us down.

"Always-on, multitasking work environments are killing productivity, dampening creativity, and making us unhappy."

Further reading here

If you're concerned about how you consume information and how it might be changing your behaviours, I strongly recommend that you do nothing for 2 minutes.

Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow has written a fantastic Guardian article on this.