Attention and distraction in the digital age

Workshop

Attention plays a central role in our lives. Our ability to pay attention not just to our current goals, but to what matters to us more broadly, is crucial for agency. Yet in the era of the so-called attention economy, we are acutely aware of the fragility of our attention. Some familiar pictures are invoked to explain the situation, e.g., that digital environments contain too much information for us to process, which makes attention a “scarce resource” or that digital technologies “hijack” our attention through persuasive design.

The aim of this one day workshop is to develop approaches that move beyond both the “scarce resource” and the “hijack” model, rethinking the philosophical and cognitive foundations of attention and distraction in the digital age. The workshop takes its point of departure in the thought that our environments scaffold our attention – sometimes in hostile ways – and that digital environments pose particular challenges to our capacity to act attentively.

The workshop is in person and open to all.

More information will follow.