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Continuous Partial Attention?
Jeff Kenton | Mar 30 2006
Hi everyone, I was reading the March 27 Newsweek, and Steven Levy's column caught my attention. In the article, he quotes a conference talk given my Linda Stone. Linda used to work at both Apple and Microsoft. She's concerned about a phenomenon called Continuous Partial Attention (CPA). This affliction (my word) involves trying to engage oneself in two worlds simultaneously. Levy also provides a metaphor: "A live Blackberry or even a switched-on mobile phone is an admission that your commitment to your current activity is as fickle as Renee Zellweger's wedding vows." (Ouch.) and: What can be done? Is it rude to assume that I can ask my conversation partner to unhook the bluetooth earbud when talking to me? Can I take away my meeting group's Blackberrys until the meeting is over? Does anyone have any strategies for dealing with this? 17 Comments
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 Lets add another element. ...Submitted by jasonechols on May 29, 2006 - 7:03pm.
Lets add another element. What about individuals who are not necessarily so connected, but you know when you talk to them, you only have partial attention? There is a lady that I work with (God bless Michael for listening to me rant about here many times) that was my lead on the project that I worked on last year. Almost every time I spoke with her about something, I knew I had only half of her attention. When you spoke with her, you could literally see her not listening as much as she was formulating her response...to the point where she almost always interrupted before you finished. Ineveitably, something happens, I remind her of our conversaion, and she remembers nothing. Sometimes I would follow instructions that she gave me, and she would not even remember that. I finally had to start makeing notes of our conversaions, and recording things as they happened in order to cover my professional butt. It is my opinion that this issue has shackled a cinder block on me in my career pursuits. Any ideas on how to handle a situation like this one? » POSTED IN:
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