Infinite Distraction: Connections Across Scholarship
Distraction. It is a word that is seemingly minor, and yet, its implications are major. Pettman (2016), unravels this misconception in his book, Infinite Distraction.
Connections Across Scholarship
Tied closely to Chun’s (2016), Updating the Remain the Same, Pettman (2016) frames his ideas within classic philosophical constructs. However, unlike Chun (2016), he describes phenomena in ways that are not only easier to consume, but also relatable and extendable. For instance, the idea of the “habitual” is briefly revisited. Pettman (2016) offers a key insight that Chun (2016) left to be desired; that “even the distracted person can form habits.” Further clarifying, “the ability to master certain tasks in a state of distraction first proves that their performance has become habitual” (pg. 25).
Secondly, the concept of the “update” and its effects reemerge. Chun (2016) argues that updates change user behavior, and in turn, form habits. This idea is a good one, and still, it translates into an incomplete thought. Pettman (2016) adds depth by acknowledging the “organic limits” and “cultural collateral damage” that consequently occurs when users update at an unmanageable pace (pg. 27). It all makes sense given how Pettman (2016) defines distraction – a psychological phenomenon that is historically synonymous with the term insanity (pg. 27).
Additional Takeaways
Additional takeaways from the book are: (1) “engineered attention” (pg. 27) and; (2) the “attention economy” (pg. 15).
Engineered attention, described as “a million tiny moments” whose summation is a distraction is an excellent way to describe how incremental posts, likes, shares, and tweets create one collective distraction, and even, distractions within distractions – not unlike Seymour feeding Audrey II.
Defined as focused mental engagement on a specific item of information (Davenport & Beck 2001, pg. 20), attention is framed under an economic and capitalistic lens (Pettman, 2016, pg. 15). The theoretical framework is under-utilized in emerging technology scholarship and is ripe for future opportunity. Personally, I am a big advocate for merging the media studies and business administration disciplines for the sake of illustrating how consumerism has become religion, and explicating, how it dominates our information systems, social interactions, digital representations of the self, and as of late, politics and governance.
Book Recommendation
“24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep,” by Johnathan Crary (2013) is a book I highly recommend. It is a modern point of reference for how the attention economy standardizes experiences, erodes the creative class, and decomposes the psyche. The softcover blends media studies, business, neuroscience, and philosophy in ways that are insightful and critically engaging.
I’d go as far as to say, that it will not be long before all social media scholars will have to engage in business scholarship (outside the confines of advertising and marketing) for illustrating the social, psychological, and economic impacts made by social network sites (SNSs) and other forms of social media. This would include areas such as: (1) Organizational management for studying how social technology companies operate under new business models and within the attention economy; (2) Product management for evaluating feature-driven design and determining true opportunity costs for users; and (3) Economics for determining potential market forces that can and do cause shifts in consumerism, and thus, interfaces and online behavior.
