I am pretty sure that the short attention span is founded somewhere in our primordial souls. We instinctually were on high alert at all times, so as to preserve our very existence. Who could predict when a saber tooth tiger might pop out of the trees to dine on your liver. Our preprogrammed ability to mentally multi task served an actual function - self preservation.
With the advent of organized society and the extinction of such menacing beasts, we no longer have to be on high alert for self preservation. Instead, that same instinct has now been bushwhacked into making sure that we don't miss an email or instant message from Billy Bob. We have all seen heads popping up like prairie dogs out of their holes when a generic iPhone ding-a-ling pierces the air.
I recently read an article that described how we train our children at a very early age to fall into this very same conundrum. We drop them in front of a television with a bunch of toys. Immediately they are forced to multi task as they now have two interruptors of their attention. Yet a third interruptor rears its ugly head in the constant stream of commands and redirects that spew from the mouths of parents.
Are we ultimately on the path to continuous interruption? At some future date will we all just lay in bed with a wire in our head, twitching in interruption Nirvana? Perhaps there is no cure.
Makes me think of a lyric from a John Prine song
Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own
Or maybe better yet
Log off of Facebook, throw away your iPhone, move to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, try and find Jesus on your own
All content copyright of Christopher Hammond
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