DLD07: Linda Stone on partial attention and unifocus

Running notes from the Digital Life Design DLD07 conference in Munich (Germany) (Live video)

Second session: Linda Stone on the topic of attention. Linda coined a while ago the concept of "continuous partial attention" or CPA (I blogged her speech at Picnic06 in Amsterdam, too, and she has an article coming out in the Harvard Business Review).

Our world is noisy, and we use every tool we have to keep up and stay on top of everything. At the same time, there is a desire that's growing in all of us: to enjoy more signal and less noise. We are in the cusp of one age of attention, and moving into another. We have been in the age of CPA for the last 20 years. We are now entering the age of unifocus and presence.

CPA is fueled by the urge, not to miss anything. It is different from multitasking. The age of multitasking preceded that of CPA: it is motivated by the desire to be more efficient. We multitask when we eat, talk on the phone, etc. That's about getting things done - do more, play more. CPA is about scanning for more, new opportunities. Connect more. Be a live node in the network.

We have dropped the part about withdrawal from some things in order to deal with others - we just try to do them all. We keep the top priorities in focus and at the same time scan the periphery for other opportunities. We are in a state of constant crisis. But how many of those 500 e-mails a day are really important? In small doses, CPA serves us well. But continuous CPA sets off a cascade in our bodies. As we begin to consider the impact of this lifestyle, researchers are telling us that we are doing tasks more slowly and poorly.

But I believe that we are moving from the "I connect" era to the "I belong and protect" era characterized by unifocus and presence. Stillness, authenticity, "I know how to use thee tools but I choose not to right now". Moving from a focus on features to a focus on ease-of-use and now we will start focusing on quality of life. The key questions will be: does this new product/service/message improve our quality of life? Does it help us to protect/filter/have more meaningful connections?