Continuous partial attention and the fear of missing out
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
They used to call it multi-tasking, which was seen as a positive thing; now it’s known as continuous partial attention – defined as the state of giving only a partial and continuous level of attention to many different things at once, driven by the desire to stay connected and not miss out.
The acronym for that is FOMO – or Fear of Missing Out – but what really happens is that, in your determination to cover all bases, you get a little bit of everything and not enough of anything.
The classic example these days is scrolling on your phone when you’re watching the telly; you’re looking through emails or social media and then you realise you’ve literally lost the plot on your television drama.
And that’s fine because – as parents and teachers used to say – you’re only hurting yourself.
But if you run out of television dramas – or you’re a chronic insomniac in desperate search of sleep – and you’re tuning into debates in the Houses of the Oireachtas or you have a predilection for events in the House of Commons, and you spot a backbencher on their phone during a debate…that’s a more serious state of affairs.
We all know that these debates can be boring but, honestly, that’s why you’re well-paid to listen to them – or alternatively take yourself and your phone off to a place where there are no television cameras to capture you.
It’s not that simple, of course, because the law requires a certain quota of TDs in the House to allow debates to go ahead, and sometimes when you get a wide shot of the chamber, you realise that there are so few of them there that you could comfortably fit the whole lot into a phone box.
So one or two are there under duress, with little or no interest in what is taking place – so whipping your phone out of your pocket is one way to ease the boredom. Except you can be seen on the telly doing it.
If you did it in school, you’d have your phone taken off you and you’d probably get detention as well – so maybe that’s a solution in Leinster House too.