How will we spend our attention?
Here’s what I think is a good taxonomy of how we spend our attention, briefly defined and exampled:
- Task - get this done (fold clothes)
- Focused - improve at something (learn a language)
- Social - participate in a group (go to dinner)
- Entertainment - consume for fun (watch a movie)
- Discovery - find new stuff (research for a trip)
We can spend our attention in more than one way at a time. I find that in order to be present and get more done, it’s best to spend my attention in the least amount of ways possible in any given moment.
Phones and wearables make this hard. If you believe that the next mainstream piece of hardware will be AR glasses or contacts, then being able to concentrate your attention is going to get even harder.
Think of this phenomenon as the digital equivalent of food deserts. Maybe a more apt metaphor is the digital jungle—we will be constantly wading through dense foliage just to survive.
I’m optimistic that there will be more alternatives for us to choose from as this problem gets worse.
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