“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”-Simone Weil

I was recently introduced to this beautiful quote. I keep coming back to it pondering how technology has changed our relationships with time and space, and what or how we pay attention within our realms of experience.

Most change is clear to see in retrospect. For example the first US non-stop cross-country flight was in 1923. That was less than 100 years ago, hardly a blip in the scheme of time. Today it’s common to be able to stand on either coast of a continent in a single day. This changed us.

TV introduced stories with visual non-sequiturs, leaving our imaginations to fill in the gaps. Different than listening to or reading a story, as it requires the attention of both the visual and auditory senses. This changed us, fracturing our experience of time as a continuum.

At some point today we are born into the digital world, and depending upon the life stage at which we are born into the digital, and the frequency of experience, etc., our relationship with this realm will differ.

The nature of the digital is continual change; different from physical world change, or at least at this point it’s too early in its existence to understand larger patterns of change. The current digital is random with possibility; this continues to change us and keep our attention, stealing it from our inner realms and the physical world.

Regardless of our experiences in the digital domain, it is just the beginning and the continued evolution is going to be a really big deal. At some point we’ll cross a threshold where we can seamlessly inhabit the digital. Not to say it will all be seamless, certainly some experiences will be (with exponential leaps getting there).

With the merging of the digital and physical we also have Homo evolutis. In the future we will likely have the opportunity to consciously design ourselves and experiences. Imagine no longer just wishing that your child have the aptitude for neuroscience or empathy; simply order it…Perhaps “simply” isn’t the right word… Oh, the moral dilemmas that will ensue…

Some of us will choose to be continually locked into the digital with technology delivering vivid unified experiences. Today there are sci-fi stories that portray lives like this, although for me as I think about this potential future I am reminded of a wonderful real life memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly . After suffering a stroke, Bauby gets locked-in syndrome. He is paralyzed except of one eye that he blinks in order to communicate. He dictated his memoir by blinking his eye as a caregiver scribed his story. Like an infant, all of his physical needs were cared for by others. He described his physical state like living in an old deep-sea diving suit. Rather than this devastating him, his spirit was like a butterfly. His focus and attention turned inward and he became empowered as he explored his mind fantasizing, reliving and creating new experiences. He could be anyone he wanted, with anyone he wanted, wherever he wanted.

I think about this man and his story because he was not seduced by technology into this state of being, he had no choice. For those who will choose technology to aid them in enhanced experiences, I question who or what controls their attention.

Regardless, as we become more and more dependent on technology, as it continues it to enfold us, we will likely have to be diligent about owning our attention and not playing the fool to technology and its distractions.

We have the freedom and opportunity to appreciate each moment and ask …What deserves generous attention now? Our intention and the choices we make will determine any meaningful longevity.

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A search on “digital attention” led me to this “During the last century information was a scarce resource. Now, human attention has become the scarce resource whereas information (of all types and qualities) abounds. “- Claudia Roda from her book Human attention in Digital Environments