In her turn-of-the-century work with Apple and Microsoft, tech veteran Linda Stone was on the front edge of developing new “attention strategies” for living and working in a hyper-connected, always-on world. With the state of “continuous partial attention” now our cultural norm, how do we lower the costs of never being fully present anywhere we go?
Stone is a realist when noting how tethered we are to our devices. She is pessimistic when listing the serious relational costs of chronic continuous partial attention. But she is hopeful when describing how we are learning to develop new attention strategies in our “new normal.”
John Chandler
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It turns out that we function as cautionary tales to one another. We learn by imitation. Children are not inherently attracted to smartphones. They are fascinated with whatever fascinates their parents. If mommy and daddy can’t put down their devices, a child will imitate that. Stone believes children will learn to make judgments about the costs of parents looking at their devices instead of looking at them — and will vow not to repeat bad behaviors in their own parenting.
Emerging adults increasingly value meaningful community and deeply connected relationships. Increasingly, many in the most tech-savvy generation in history understand when it is time to put down devices and give the gift of full attention. Stone notes a new game being played in Silicon Valley board rooms. “Everyone sticks their phone in the middle of the table” at the beginning of the meeting. “Whoever grabs their phone first has to treat to the meal.”
The church has a time-tested attention strategy. For millennia, the people of God have practiced the spiritual discipline of fasting. Typically, fasting has involved doing without food for a season, in order to focus full attention on God. Sometimes, as discussed in 1 Corinthians 7, couples “fast” sex. Historically, others fast all sorts of things in order to be more fully present to God, others and themselves. I now hear followers of Jesus regularly talking about their “technology fasts.”
A surge in the discipline of fasting might have all sorts of spiritual benefits. In a culture of continuous partial attention, any help toward learning to be fully present would be a blessing.
John Chandler (john.chandler@vbmb.org) is leader of the Spence Network, www.spencenetwork.org. Follow the Spence Network on Facebook and Twitter.