Linda Stone on Continuous Partial Attention and Email Apnea
With Isabel Walcott Draves
“We kept looking for multitaskers’ advantages in this study. But we kept finding only disadvantages. We thought multitaskers were very much in control of information. It turns out, they were just getting it all confused.” — Eyal Ophir, Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, Stanford University quoted in the New York Times, 8/30/09
The results of the recent Stanford study didn’t come as a surprise to Linda Stone, the high-tech writer and consultant who coined the term “continuous partial attention” in 1997 and was featured in one of Supernova’s Network Age Briefing, “Disconnecting in the Network Age.”
I asked Linda to talk a little bit about her own insights and the results of her research on being “always on.”
IWD: How strongly do you advocate “disconnecting”?
LS: I’m NOT a hard line “everyone needs to disconnect” person. I believe the WAY we connect is key. When we connect with an attitude of “I can’t miss anything,” and we do it at the expense of relationships (ignoring a dinner companion, etc.), there’s a cost and not so much of a benefit. When we are owned by the technology, it’s an issue, in my opinion. When we connect, keep breathing, and know when to take a break, it’s a different story. I think “email free Friday” is ridiculous. A larger pile of email awaits on Saturday or Monday. Companies that have days that are meeting free, however, report benefits from this. Technology is here to enhance our relationships, productivity, AND quality of life. When it’s not serving us in that way, it’s time to consider what would work for us to shift toward a more functional relationship with technology.
We keep describing the issue as information overload, the larger issue appears to be over-consumption – over-consumption of information, of debt, of food, and so forth. Our opportunity is to learn discernment and to make choices.
IWD: I find that last comment so perceptive. Become an information connoisseur, not a glutton stuffing your face. How did you get into studying this topic?
LS: For me, this all started as observation in 1996-1997, when I noticed the difference in behaviors between my grad students at NYU, ITP and my colleagues at Microsoft. That led me to coin the phrase “Continuous Partial Attention” — a phrase with more resonance than “complex multi-tasking.” My background (undergrad and grad school) included a lot of cognitive psychology. I’ve long been fascinated by issues related to attention, emotion and cognition.
I began to delve into the literature in cognitive psychology, neuroscience and sociology. I also looked at both what was happening with individuals as well as what was happening with mass consciousness/society. I did a tremendous amount of research over a period of 10 years on dominant attention paradigms (mass culture) and twenty-year eras of attention (starting with 1945 and projecting to 2025).
IWD: What about social media?
LS: To me, the key thing about social media is that it’s in its infancy. At this moment, we’re doing what the computer does well vs. what good social networkers do well. This is how we started with spreadsheets and word processors. It’s the way of it. As people use the various social network tools, they’ll evolve. Twitter is the thing to watch for now. The most brilliant thing about Twitter is that it has a thin layer of functionality with API’s that enable creative evolution. Users and developers can evolve the service, bringing in collective wisdom and vision.
IWD: What is the phenomenon you term “Email Apnea” all about?
LS: In 2007, I observed that I wasn’t breathing when I would sit down at the computer. That led me to interview and observe over 200 people. The pattern was typical — most of us have such poor posture and then, combined with the emotion of anticipation, which is accompanied by an inhalation, we tend to shallow-breathe or breath-hold when at the computer or on a mobile device. I’ve spent the last year and a half reviewing the literature, talking with a variety of healthcare researchers and professionals. I became fascinated by this, in part, because breathing patterns have significant impact on attention, emotion and cognition. It’s very related to my previous research on attention. Breathing is fundamental in regulating our autonomic nervous system — the “fight or flight”, or “rest and digest” response. Breathing contributes significantly toward regulating attention and emotion.
IWD: So the solution is to just “disconnect”?
LS: I’ve long been concerned about ergonomists and anti-technology folks advocating cutting off from technology. Technology use is part of who we’ve become and what we do. It enhances our lives in so many ways. Yet, depending on how we mediate our relationship with technology, it can also compromise us. Balance is a great thing — I was on Orcas Island for a long weekend and the natural world there was bliss. I also got on a wireless network now and then. One of the things I’ve learned is that, if I practice certain breathing habits that up-regulate the “rest and digest” or parasympathetic nervous system response, that my relationship with technology, with everything, shifts. Researchers in social and emotional intelligence suggest that when the parasympathetic nervous system is up-regulated that we are more socially and emotionally intelligent.
So what do I advocate? Awareness. Learning breathing habits that help us own our attention. When we’re in fight or flight, when we don’t OWN our own attention, the technology can enslave us. When we learn breathing habits that down-regulate the sympathetic or fight-or-flight response, we make choices from a wiser, more embodied place. Neuroplasticity and some of the most recent work on the evolving brain/mind is one of the most fascinating fields today. Hopeful, exciting.
IWD: Is this an addicted society? Do you collect any statistics, like, say, marriage failures due to excessive texting?
LS: I’m reticent to “buy into” calling our relationship to technology an “addiction.” I don’t know this literature (I’ve read a few studies, but nothing that’s struck me as super well done). I haven’t looked at data on marriages failing. I’ve done some interviews that are hilarious, though. One where a woman said that her husband gets no sex unless he puts down the Blackberry when he gets home. I’ve done other interviews where I find there are hard and fast rules in the house regarding where and when cell phones and computers can be used (I wrote the piece, Phone in the Toilet, based on a few of those interviews). I’ve followed Antonio Damasio’s work on Twitter (about rapid-fire media’s impact on morality).
While I do have some opinions, I also think the jury is still out on a lot of this. I have strong confidence in humans’ tendencies toward homeostasis. When we’re out of balance with regard to Continuous Partial Attention, and over-consumption of information — we’ll ultimately correct (our generation or the next generation) with yoga, meditation, breath work, and biofeedback-based games and interfaces. We’re already starting to see hints of this. By 2014, we’ll REALLY see this.
Finally, I’m a little troubled by any approach that elevates one attention strategy over another. For example, focus is a grand and fabulous thing, but there’s also a time for simple multi-tasking, for continuous partial attention, and so forth.
IWD: Linda, thanks for taking the time to talk with the Supernova Hub.
LS: My pleasure.
photo: joi
