Let's pay attention to what we pay attention to and learn to distract ourselves better
Using literality, what we do with our attention is not exactly the same. It depends on what language you're using and where in the world you are. For example, in English attention is "paid", indicating that it is something valuable, something worth trading; in French attention is "made", implying effort, dedication; in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, attention is "given", something that is offered, lent or given away; in Finnish, attention is something that is added, something that is added, like a condiment that gives flavor to relationships.
Certainly, more exhaustive research would provide us with other perspectives from other languages and cultures. Nevertheless, all the ones I found attribute value to attention. I don't intend, however, to propose a reflection on the cultural differences around attention, because I believe that the difficulties we people are experiencing in being attentive have gone from acute to chronic and, who knows?, to universal. Could it be so? Are we paying attention to what really matters, when it comes to attention?
There seems to be a consensus, at least in common sense, that we are less able to be attentive. The signs seem obvious. Fewer and fewer books are read; it is recommended that articles and other types of publications have character limits, so as not to disturb, to the point of driving away, increasingly restless minds; for similar reasons, videos cannot be longer than X minutes, so as not to contribute to boredom or boredom; even movies are already difficult to watch to the end...
Then there are the notorious1 and ubiquitous technological devices, with their enchanting screens, that distract us, that steal our attention2 - assuming that distraction is the opposite of attention and concentration - with their endless notifications, coming from people, machines and brands, and their extraordinary capacity to perform many tasks at the same time that, by design, rarely give us a truce and leave us room to breathe in our own world.
The responsibility is attributed, in an obvious and intentionally(?) diffuse way, to modern times. The world, today, is constantly distracting us and ruining our minds. We have even invented a condition - Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - that so many misuse, and some even boast about, as a card that identifies them as victims of this world, or of their own nature. However, there is evidence that we are distracted creatures by nature, that it is not technology or the internet that has "broken" us33 , and that such a characteristic is an evolutionary advantage4. Could it be that we have always been like this?
We know that our attention has long been seen as a problem to be solved, or, for those who like a more "positive" language, a challenge to be conquered5. The world we live in today is just one more step in our fight against distraction and for attention and concentration. For example, the Information Fatigue Syndrome is real and has proven consequences, as I alluded to in a past writing6. In addition to our natural tendency to obviate "long time" and to resort to recency, prolonged contact with this dilemma will have left us with important preconceptions and biases. Namely, distraction is "bad" and "attention" is good.
I am concerned about the commodification of attention, in the sense that it is linked to productivity. From this perspective, to be distracted is to produce less, reinforcing the evil of distraction. Attention should not only serve production. I am concerned about the diminishing of our analytical and critical capacities, and even more so about our metacognitive capacity, which is the capacity to think about how we think.
Consequently, I am concerned about the externalization of conflicts that could or should be solved internally; the decrease in our tolerance to frustration or the non-immediate satisfaction of desires. I remember an episode when I was watching my children watching cartoons and I noticed a discussion among them: one of them needed to go to the bathroom and wanted the others to pause what they were watching and only let the "puppets" run again when he returned. In reflecting on this observation, I compared it to my experience at a similar age. If I was watching TV and needed to satisfy some physiological need, I would have two options: I could hold on, or I could go where I needed to go, trying to lose as little as possible. It was a decision I had to make, with myself. Now, because of the ease of controlling what we watch on television, as an example, an internal conflict has moved outward.
Seeking neither causality nor absolutism in the explanation, it seems to me that this kind of phenomenon is visible in public discourse, with the degrees of indignation and sensitivity rising, contributing to polarization, to the dictatorship of political correctness, and to the withering away of our ability to converse constructively and collaboratively. The focus is on insult, on grievance, on political correctness and incorrectness, on indignation, on demands. We no longer know how to converse and discuss ideas: the imperative of a correctly determined form leads to censorship of the content.
What I think is missing, therefore, is a new way of looking at attention and distraction. William James, one of the pioneers of psychology, left us the idea of the importance of paying attention to what we pay attention to7. The quality of this "meta-attention" [my suggestion] is, in James' view, what distinguishes geniuses from normal people. It is not merely a path to productivity but is a path to a richer, fuller, more conscious life, as many thinkers have advanced throughout history.
"Love is the quality of the attention we pay to things," said the poet J.D. McCatchy; "my experience is what I agree to devote myself to," wrote William James; in his book "Ways of Seeing," John Berger provokes us to be attentive to how we see things and how that influences our world and that of others around us; Mary Oliver, in "Our world," reminds us that "attention without feeling...is just a report." I could go on, with references to various readings I have done over time, with associations between attention and leisure, idleness, boredom, "doing nothing"8. I prefer to end with another idea.
Let's know how to distract ourselves better. Distraction is "bad", I repeat. Is it? Anyone who deals or has dealt with children will know that distraction can be a very powerful thing. A tantrum in the street can end by drawing attention to a passing airplane, or by turning your hand into a flying object. Therefore, distracting children from their emotions and thoughts by shifting their attention to something else, even something insignificant and irrelevant, can have positive effects. We carry this notion, more or less consciously, into our adult version: we learn to deal with difficult emotions and thoughts by distracting ourselves. When we feel lonely, bored, angry, frustrated, worried, we distract ourselves with the shiny screen that is most accessible, which shows us often irrelevant things, such as is a plane passing by or a hand pretending to be another flying. We distract ourselves with distractions.
Distract ourselves better. Distract ourselves with the things and people that matter to us, that allow us to have better relationships with others and with the world, that allow us not to ignore thoughts and feelings that seem harsh or dangerous, that put us in touch with what moves us and what makes us stop, when stopping is good.
Let us add intention to our attention and distraction.
Written for Link to Leaders on April 29, 2023, published May 4, 2023.
