Continuous Partial Attention 245
ubercombatwombat writes "While answering my softphone and checking my mail simultaneously I ran across the following article by Steven Levy. In it he writes about a speaker named Linda Stone and something she called "Continuous Partial Attention." I finally had a phrase for the reason I turn off wi-fi, asked people to turn off their cell phones and put away their crackberrys when I am speaking to a group. I suffer from this too. Starting today I am going to do something about it, brb."
R. Keller at Legoe Bay Wireless, LLC (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, R. Keller of Legoe Bay communications was fired today after he ran through his office complex preaching the horrors of wireless devices.
His manager later commented that his "Continuous Partial Attention" campaign wasn't very good for business.
Whoa! Look guys! (Score:5, Funny)
The author's e-mail address is rkeller@legoebay.com
A whole Ebay just for Lego!
Re:Whoa! Look guys! (Score:2)
Re:Whoa! Look guys! (Score:3, Informative)
There is not plural of Lego because it's a brand name. And they kinda insist that you use "Lego" in that manner. Seriously.
They can insist all they want, but... (Score:2)
Re:Whoa! Look guys! (Score:2)
Actually, the slogan was (and is) "L'eggo my Eggo", with the commercial always featuring two people fighting over a single Eggo.
But even if it had been as you suggested, that would be a situation where the company encourages the pluralization of their brand name. Lego, on the other hand, explicitly asks people not to do this [multicon.de].
You know you're bored at work when you're debating on Slashdot about the plural form of "Lego". Yikes.
Re:Whoa! Look guys! (Score:2)
Well, it's from the Greek le/og (same root as "logos"), but it's a verb form; it means "I speak" or "I bind together" or "I relate". The plural (we speak etc.) would be "legomen". Meanwhile, the phrase "leggo my eggo" (if spelled "legomai ego") means "I talk to myself". If we were to assume it was a badly-anglicized Greek-based noun, the plural would be either legoi or legoe.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Amazing! (Score:2)
Re:Amazing! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:2, Funny)
Mine was so pissed the last time, he threatened to pull my network connection and strangle me with it if he ever caught me on
Re:Amazing! (Score:2)
Re:Amazing! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Amazing! (Score:3)
There is the sound of increasing shareholder value.
-Steve
(but my good friends call me wally)
You know... (Score:5, Funny)
too kind a description (Score:5, Insightful)
Continuous Partial Attention is way too kind. It begs forgiveness at the promise of continuous, then betrays with partial.
Anyone who's majored in Mathematics (I did) must spend one semester carefully defining, understanding, and proving continuity. What's described by today's "etiquette" clearly and egregiously violates the notion of continuous, rendering the euphemism "Continous Partial Attention" nothing more than an oxymoron.
And, it's pretty easy to tell when the person on the other end is giving CPA... in person, vague and inconsistent eye contact while constantly glancing at some screen (be it PDA or computer). Remotely (phone) it's even more annoying.
I've taken my own path to self-correct.
Of the last ten social events I've attended (movies, parties, recitals, concerts) every single time I saw, heard, and was distracted by someone using some PDA, or other gadget... and not one of those times did it seem appropriate or necessary (not saying there weren't necessary times, but I'm guessing there weren't).
I've yet to meet anyone important enough they must be connected and engaged every waking moment. The world worked well before all of this, it would be a better place if we turned down the volume on the gadgetry (not that Verizon, SONY, Apple, et. al., will ever allow that to happen on their watch (literally)).
It doesn't help that we somehow come up with a positive sounding euphemism for it.
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
Santa Claus. Alright, I guess you haven't met him either.
Re:too kind a description (Score:5, Funny)
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
Re:too kind a description (Score:5, Funny)
Oops I just got an email. gotta run.
Re:too kind a description (Score:2, Funny)
Somehow I think an epsilon-delta proof in the middle of the article would trigger a discontinuity in the attention span of the reader.
Re:too kind a description (Score:5, Funny)
During my last outing a woman answered her cell to tell the caller she was in the middle of a movie and couldn't talk. She had to repeat it several times because the caller couldn't hear her whisper.
Just confirms my theory that technology accentuates stupid.
Re:too kind a description (Score:5, Interesting)
Tho not at a movie... I am a firm believer in excusing myself and walking away from whatever social situation while answering the phone.... even in a bar, I prefer to walk all the way outside while answering the phone.
Generally tho... if I am even having a mildly interesting conversation and I have no reason to believe the issue is pressing... the ringer gets silenced.
The reason I rather do that (and put in on vibrate during movies) is I can look at the caller id, and I let people know if I slienced the ringer and they call immediatly back, I will assume its an emergency...
mostly because when someone calls me back immediatly after hitting my voice mail, I usually answer like "Hey, whats the emergency?" then hang up on them if it isn't one.
I dunno... I think cell phones would be alot less annoying if people just exercised a little common courtesy in their use.
Remember landlines? What ever happend to going into the other room to take a call? or saying things like "can I call you back later"?
-Steve
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
Sorry, sunshine, some people actually do need to be continually accessible. Engaged, no, but connected, yes (for the cellphone example).
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
Re:too kind a description (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:too kind a description (Score:4, Interesting)
continuously partial attention.
Re:too kind a description (Score:3, Insightful)
From the Article (Score:2, Funny)
From the Article
I really can't think of a better punchline than that.
Wrong partial? (Score:2)
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
You can have a continuous partial derivative though. But I think what you're getting at is that modern etiquette is not so much discontinuous anymore, as it is completely fractal.
Re:too kind a description (Score:2)
I was unaware that all of life took place on the face of a large watch owned by Sony and Apple. Thank you for enlightening me.
-CGP [colingregorypalmer.net]
Not just work... (Score:5, Interesting)
Apart from this little side rant into bitterness, my point is that we are becoming so inundated with communications, and we are trying so hard to talk and connect with everyone, that it is impossible to talk to anyone. Mobile communications can enhance productivity and relationships if used properly, but God knows they can be a pain.
Re:Not just work... (Score:2)
Re:Not just work... (Score:5, Funny)
Then answer my emails. Do you want this Viagra and penis enlargement stuff or not?
Re:Not just work... (Score:2)
I suggest you ask your friends and co-workers if this is true, or if you just think it is...
Re:Not just work... (Score:2)
You're lucky she pays attention when you're together. A few years ago my then GF and I were in the pub catching up on each other's day; as I was replying to a question she'd asked me, she picked up her cell phone, called a friend and started talking to them about some totally unrelated matter when I was in mid-sentence. Then she wondered why I got pissed off...
Re:Not just work... (Score:2)
Since this is Slashdot, you should have guessed that she cleared off with some other guy years ago :-)
Re:Not just work... (Score:2)
I am actually pretty unusual in the degree of attention I will give to someone in IM, but even I will be running around cleaning or wo
not really new (Score:5, Insightful)
my wife has vivid memories of sitting in church as a child while her dad made to-do lists during the sermon.
it is a valuable skill, being able to give partial attention to multiple inputs. it keeps us alive in many situations. when i worked on a flight deck we called it 'keeping your head on a swivel'. and never getting too locked in to one thing. that was the way to get blown over or some other nastiness.
and i'd be very surprised to find a person who would assert that surfing the web or whatever else they may do at a presentation had no effect on their attention. they know it degrades it, but the point is, most such venues don't warrant the attenders full attention. in the case that it does, they will quickly shift away from the other inputs.
Re:not really new (Score:2)
For further references.... (Score:2)
We've definitely talked about this many times before. I guess this is more special though because she came up with a clever name for it.
Re:yabut (Score:5, Insightful)
i remember when walkmans got big and people would just sit in the middle of social situations with headphones on - not nearly as unobtrusive as ipod headphones- and it's dumb and rude. (still is with the ipod).
my point is not that it isn't a problem if you are going through life paying more attention to things other than people (things being your own inner voice or any other distraction) but rather that this is an age old issue being manifested with new technological forms of distraction. it is a lot like taking everything we've always had and adding an 'e' or 'i' to it and acting like it is brand new.
Re:yabut (Score:2)
Right... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Right... (Score:5, Funny)
Meanwhile, I've noticed that many of the people (not you necessarily) who complain loudly about cluttered web pages run Firefox with dozens of extensions and have at least 5 tabs open at any given point not to mention all the ultra-important widgets that tell them exactly what the state of the universe is and do I have mail already. I prefer to keep things simple. [splasho.com]
Re:Right... (Score:2)
Right indeed. (Score:2)
Yeah, I run Konqueror with flash turned off to stop that. Anyting that actually needs something fancy is a right click, open with firefox button push away. Garbage like M$NBC loads much faster, but still needs a tab of it's own to hide the ugly.
Imagine the life of a M$IE user who can't easily turn off flash, has multiple adsservers installed and problems
Notice it in chats (Score:5, Insightful)
Some days I just throw myself at one task and get it done, rather than dabbling in everything. Dabbling in everything is fun, and feels like a busy day, but it tends to produce a lot less than a dedicated day [which is usually away from the primary computer(s) I use].
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Notice it in chats (Score:2)
Status messages don't keep everyone away, because it's about the same as sending an email, as long as the other person doesn't answer the message as soon as they get it.
My favourite quote from the article was this:
"during our conversation, some auditory clues led me to ask her one more question. "Linda," I asked, "are you taking this interview while driving your car?" She admitted that she was. But as long as she didn't have to slam the brakes or dodg
Yes but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yes but... BUT nothing! (Score:5, Insightful)
The clickity-clickity of a person (or multiple persons) thumbing a reply to every super-urgent e-mail they receive on their crackberries during meetings or presentations is not silent. Nor is someone pecking at a laptop keyboard. Nor is a cellphone vibrate alert. Yes, even that is distracting, not only to the presenter or speaker, but more importantly, to the other people who are there to participate in the meeting, discussion, or presentation.
Re:Yes but... BUT nothing! (Score:2)
Re:Yes but... (Score:2, Insightful)
(If you think this argument sounds familiar, it is lifted from Neil Postman. circa 1980ish?)
Re:Yes but... (Score:2)
More likely, there just wasn't anything else going on that day. When the highlight of your week is listening to a couple of politicians pontificate on precarious points, your life is just plain pathetic.
Re:Yes but... (Score:3, Insightful)
my time is valuable. but it's not the world's scarcest
Re:Yes but... (Score:2)
If you're not interested, why are you there?
Re:Yes but... (Score:2)
There is an answer for this (Score:5, Insightful)
Mobile devices, computers, all this technology that serves to distract us is capable of being moderated. That is to say, my phone should only ring when the call is from list X while I have it set this way, so that while I'm attending certain functions, only list X callers will interrupt my activities. I should be able to have many such lists, and using ring tones, know which list the caller is from. The same goes for computers, any activity on the computer that demands attention can be moderated (except
This limits the distractions, and gives us more time to concentrate on other things, to be more effective at multitasking. This, I believe, was the original reasoning for executives to have an assistant. Now we have PDAs and they are not moderating the interuptions to our lives... not really very good assistants!
The simple idea of moderating alerts, notifications, emails, and such is just not catching on. In some 10 years or more, I can see computer programs that have some kind of AI built into them to make them really good digital assistants.... till then, pfft, people will still wreck their cars while typing an email, driving, and trying to eat lunch at the same time... There was a word we used to use - Dictation, why don't PDAs allow for dictation of emails?
Well, so much for technological 'advances'
We have this already (Score:2)
My two year old cell phone can do this. I can specify different ringers to different people and answer based on that. Also, there's this little thing called caller-id. In a meeting, if I need to be reachable, my phone is set
Re:We have this already (Score:2)
This is a constant hassl ein my workplace. People get interrupted 8 times in ameeting, and distract everyone else by checkeng their caller ID. This is especially annoying when someone at their desk gets an IM from
In the mean time, get priorities right. (Score:3, Insightful)
If M$ made it, would you trust it to work? M$ "Smart" phones have not been very smart.
In the mean time, I'm keeping the thing on. My duty to my pregnant wife and four year old girl are more im
ugh ... Author is a moron. (Score:3, Insightful)
During the presentations the faces of at least half the crowd were lit with the spooky reflection of the laptops open before them. Those without computers would periodically bow their heads to the palmtop shrine of the BlackBerry. Every speaker was competing with the distractions of e-mail, instant messaging, Web surfing, online bill paying, blogging and an Internet chat "back channel" where conferencees supplied snarky
Redundant Department of Redundancy department (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Redundant Department of Redundancy department (Score:2)
Wannabe academics are going to suffer badly (Score:4, Insightful)
But my comments, from a former computer science undergrad major that changed his mind in senior year to become a history major is this: I am now working on my PhD in history and I know one thing: Today's grad school students are suffering from this (even the historians!). And either they will ALL suffer from this, or most will and a select few will avoid this problem and become the real experts in their academic study. You cannot become an expert in a particular field of study without TIME and STUDY. Both of those aspects are compromised with CPA.
Re:Wannabe academics are going to suffer badly (Score:2)
Re:Wannabe academics are going to suffer badly (Score:2)
no, this is when a lack of common courtesy and basic decency is a problem.
CPA (although i'd not have described it that way before) is crucial to my ability to do my job effectively. then, so is managing it, and being able to decide whether to devote CPA or Real Attention to something. if i'm in a status meeting being given by my bos
Real academics won't suffer badly (Score:2)
Our meetings are pretty much tech-free. Noone surfs on crackberries, or if they do, it's silent. If they get an urgent message, they leave the room. Always. Phones are silent (flash/vibrate).
And since we get tons of Gates and other money, I don't think we're doing it wrong.
Jon Kabat-Zinn and Midfulness (Score:3, Interesting)
Good or Bad depends on how you use it (Score:4, Interesting)
Live Nodes (Score:4, Interesting)
And like everything else, they succeeded or failed wildly. Some can handle two things at once and some couldn't.
But more, they never had a life, being too connected. That was one thing I hated and refused to get a Blackberry for that reason. I don't like being "live" on the network all the time. There's a time for it (when I'm on call), but many other times I want to work on something else. We even had a wireless service inside the campus where your desk phone would be forwarded to your cell phone anywhere in the building, which worked great in the data center. But when I'm away from my desk, I usually don't want to be interrupted because I'm doing something, so I never used it.
I see this at home as well, and as mentioned in the other posts so far. My wife will call me like 4 or 5 times on the way home, for these little snippets, "did you hear?" or "stop and get this" or "what about this?" and it's annoying.
The mobile phone doesn't mean that we are always available. It's a tool and should be used as a tool when appropriate. Not for every little whim or distraction.
Projection to the future (Score:5, Funny)
Picard: I am going to sleep now...Data, you have the bridge (I hope nothing wakes me up this time).
Data: ok Sir.
After 20 minutes:
Data: Data to Picard.
Picard: (sleepy) ommm, what is it?
Data: we are 3 days away from our rendesvous point, sir.
Picard: good...night.
Data: yes sir.
After 5 minutes:
LaForge : Engineering to Picard.
Picard: (grrr, this can't go on for ever!) what is it this time Geordi?
LaForge: I couldn't sleep sir, so I thought to check up on the engines.
Picard: so? you wake me up for that?
LaForge: the engines are not performing as they should, sir.
Picard: ok, run a full diagnostic and notify me.
LaForge: yes sir.
Picard: in the morning, that is.
LaForge: yes sir.
After 10 minutes:
LtWorf: Security to Picard.
Picard: (outraged) what????
LtWorf: sorry sir, I did not mean to bother you.
Picard: ok, tell me.
LtWorf: I think that the teenage people on board are a little behind their physical training schedules. We need to:
Picard: damn you Worf, don't you have anything else to occupy yourself with? it is 3 am in the morning!
LtWorf: duty first, sir.
Picard: GOODNIGHT!
After 5 minutes:
Data: Data to Picard.
Picard: WHAT NOW???
Data: I have never seen such a beautiful star cluster, sir. I am actually thinking of a poem for it, right now. Do you believe that...
Picard: THIS IS THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING...ATTENTION ALL CREW MEMBERS. PLEASE SHUT DOWN ALL YOUR COMMUNICATORS AND GO SLEEP! GOD DAMN IT!!!!
moral of the story: technology and instant communication with anyone, anytime in any place is not always desirable...
Re:Projection to the future (Score:2)
It's a little-known Phact that holo-technology [www.exn.ca] was originally developed as a sort of virtual answering machine, e.g.
Wesley: Captain Picard, will you talk to me?
Holo-Picard: Sure, sonny, what do you want?
Real Picard: (Snoozes)
Hey that's from an actual TNG episode! (Score:2)
Some stuff is just too important to put down in writing, after all. I have several coworkers who practice the advice of AG Eliot Spitzer [cnn.com] (speaking facetiously about criminal behavior, but if the shoe fits...) and "Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail."
Re:Projection to the future (Score:2)
Not a technological problem (Score:3, Insightful)
There is an old chinese saying about living life that sums up a good way to live it:
Sleep when tired, eat when hungry.
Re:Not a technological problem (Score:2)
Actually, in this case, I would argue that they are adding their exercise to their normal routine, not the other way around. If they were planning on being competitive atheletes, they would probably pay better attention to the training since that would be t
runners listening to ipod also bad (Score:2)
They should learn to sit on the couch and listen to that stuff, and then leave the running for itself.
Teenagers do this even without technology .... (Score:2)
Parent: "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?"
Teenager: " Uh, yeah, dad. You're right!"
Attention! (Score:2)
The Off Switch (Score:2, Insightful)
Turning things off is perhaps the single most important activity people can do, today, especially when children are around. Turn the TV off, turn the radio off, close the web browser, and realize that silence is quite enjoyable at times. Toddlers' heads aren't spinning off trying to "multi task" at TV and toys, and parents' heads aren't crunching trying to watch a show while pretending to give their children attention. The same goes for co-workers in the office. People are offended when they can't get u
= Continuous Total Screwups! (Score:2)
I've been in project meetings where I meticulously explained the plan, only to be whacked later because someone who was typing and reading stuff on her laptop screen as I explained what I planned to do realized she didn't know what I was doing ... and had to report on the project
Are you enabling? (Score:3, Insightful)
> be whacked later because someone who was typing and reading stuff on her
> laptop screen as I explained what I planned to do realized she didn't know
> what I was doing
Are you "enabling" the situation? In psychology terms, an "enabler" is someone who not only permits an undesireable situation, but often enables it to continue by fixing the resulting problems.
Seems
eh sorry... (Score:3, Funny)
What was the general gist again
:-]
Jaj
Come out with your hands up! (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe the Professor Bans Laptop article yesterday (Score:2)
Learn to meditate instead (Score:2)
Once a year I attend SIGGRAPH (Score:3, Insightful)
BUT...it's worth thinking about why people do this. I'm as guilty as anyone. The fact is - most paper presentations are incredibly boring. A certain percentage of them are given by people whose first language isn't English and are agony to listen to. Many are simply readings of the paper itself which is of no value to anyone. You have to ask what the purpose of a paper presentation actually is - as far as I can make out it's primary function is as a reward to the paper author, not a means of technical communication. In fact there are a whole bunch of colluding parties here: the conference organisers gain prestige from the presentation of good papers, the authors gain prestige by being able to claim they spoke at SIGGRAPH, and the audience get to have fun for a few days while claiming they were working. Everyone gains.
In fact, the way I use SIGGRAPH is this: I take my laptop with me and use the time away from my desk, in the conference hall, experimenting with speculative algorithms without the pressure of having to deliver anything. Just being in the presence of people talking about algorithms can be incredibly inspiring, even if you ignore the details of what they have to say. This has paid off for me quite well a couple of times in my life. And I'll read the papers later in the conference proceedings if something seems interesting.
So I plan to continue my continuous partial attention at SIGGRAPH every year.
stop telling me what to do (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone is distracting, have the courage call them out. This premptive strike is cowardly and more unprofessional than the behavoir it is trying to prevent.
Re:stop telling me what to do (Score:2)
Because it's rude to the person running the meeting and everyone else there. Is 10 minutes of waiting at the start of the meeing, possibly chatting with the other folks there, going to kill you? And if the presenter fumbles for their slides, wait patiently and pretend it never happe
Do we need another syndrome? (Score:2)
I am not only a member of the RCS Anonymous help group, I am its president.
Maybe JIRC is a better term (Score:2)
But I only have informal studies to back that claim.
I do that! (Score:2)
Re:ironic... and dangerous (Score:2)
Driving requires a lot of attention (barring interstates in Nebraska), and someone talking to you on the phone is themselves expecting a lot of your attention and isn't aware of the driving situation to know why you aren't giving it to them. As soon
Re:Is Slashdot turning into Kuro5hin? (Score:2)
NPA - Not Paying Attention...
In convo:
person A> blah blah blah
person B> * Oh, sorry - NPA...
Re:Ask yourself... (Score:2)