Stowe has recently written about his ideas of 'Flow' and Continuous Partial Attention (CPA).
His premise is that we are not necessarily information saturated - that our brains are evolving to a point where we can let the information flow over us and stay continuously partially attentive to many things at the same time. He claaims that this is a perfectly natural change in our concentration and mental abilities.
He writes about Linda Stone - the guru in CPA.
Actually I think, particularly we here at Faraday Media and Particls, we are exactly in tune with his message.
Information (particularly news) should typically flow - not pool.
Reading news in a folder/item email style metaphor is not as effective for the mainstream as having it flow by.
Note that I say the mainstream. Many of us early adopter control freaks like to read every item and have plenty of time to bury our heads in news readers. But that is not always the case - not all the time. An information flow (river of news, news ticker, popup alerts) is typically more effective.
Our work in the field of Attention is not about fighting off flow, it is about regulating the flow so that the stream is full of good content.
His premise is that we are not necessarily information saturated - that our brains are evolving to a point where we can let the information flow over us and stay continuously partially attentive to many things at the same time. He claaims that this is a perfectly natural change in our concentration and mental abilities.
He writes about Linda Stone - the guru in CPA.
"Linda and many others will tell us it will rot our teeth, disrupt family life, and lead to hair on our palms. I for one am not eager to turn off my devices and pay all my attention to one thing at a time, one moment at a time. There are too many targets on the horizon, too many members of the tribe, and too many jaguars lurking in the shadows for that. In my tribe, we don't do things that way."I'm young - my brain can handle it for now - so I agree with Stowe (to a point) - however he also writes about Linda Stone's concerns about Continuous, Continuous partial attention having deleterious affects on the body and lumps us Attention people into it.
"[Linda's CPA concerns], along with Toffler's Information Overload (it's driving us crazy, he asserted) and the Attention Economy mavens (free information leads to attention scarcity). I don't buy any of it."I disagree with Stowe on this point. We "Attention Economy mavens" and our focus on Attention are not antithetical to his ideas about information flow.
Actually I think, particularly we here at Faraday Media and Particls, we are exactly in tune with his message.
Information (particularly news) should typically flow - not pool.
Reading news in a folder/item email style metaphor is not as effective for the mainstream as having it flow by.
Note that I say the mainstream. Many of us early adopter control freaks like to read every item and have plenty of time to bury our heads in news readers. But that is not always the case - not all the time. An information flow (river of news, news ticker, popup alerts) is typically more effective.
Our work in the field of Attention is not about fighting off flow, it is about regulating the flow so that the stream is full of good content.