I really like the juxtaposition of the two readings for tomorrow's lecture on attention economy. The coexistence of information surplus and attention deficit is indeed bad news for us on many levels -- from the possible development of inferiority complex among news junkies (e.g., "omg I can never keep up with all the news I want, what's wrong with me?") to information overload among news avoiders (e.g., "omg why am I bombarded by the news even on Facebook?!"), just to name a few. The old and wise often say "moderation is the key to long-term peace and contentment, but whether we want it or not, and for better or worse, the Internet has long declared information moderation "overrated."
While filters may help us screen out unimportant information (e.g., junk mails) in the attempt to save us time, another equally, if not more important problem that I see in the age of attention deficit is our inability to prioritize things in our lives. Especially in capitalist societies, we are taught at a young age to do whatever we can to meet the demands of school and work, and sometimes we, like Rob Lippincott, lose sight of what matters to us most in our daily struggle to tackle everything that requires our attention (which is, sadly, 99% work related for many of us).
To me the problem extends from information economy to modern society, and is in dire need of our attention (no pun intended) as we spiral down the capitalist abyss that is unrealistically obsessed with growth and productivity. To paraphrase what one of my professors at Penn remarked a few years ago: The internet has fundamentally changed academia -- the expectation now is that we can work from anywhere and at anytime -- as long as we work all the time.
To me the problem extends from information economy to modern society, and is in dire need of our attention (no pun intended) as we spiral down the capitalist abyss that is unrealistically obsessed with growth and productivity. To paraphrase what one of my professors at Penn remarked a few years ago: The internet has fundamentally changed academia -- the expectation now is that we can work from anywhere and at anytime -- as long as we work all the time.
At what point will we learn to take a break from time to time to reassess priorities in our lives and adjust accordingly? For example, just because we can work from anywhere and at anytime doesn't mean we should work from everywhere and all the time... but we do.
Some lessons are harder to learn than others, but hopefully this, the art of prioritization, is one we will all master sooner rather than later.
What are your priorities in (1) the age of information surplus and (2) life?
What are your priorities in (1) the age of information surplus and (2) life?
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