I teach A.P. literature, public speaking and broadcast journalism and in this array of classes I deal with a wide range of student behaviors from highly focused and motivated kids to those who are disengaged and near-addicted to their cell phones. I notice there is a very high correlation between those who do poorly in school and those who will fight you for their cell phone (literally) – who MUST hold it in their hand. I’m fascinated with your website and your ideas. I’ve just read the Kaiser report on media usage in 8-18 year olds and I feel like I am seeing, with every year of teaching, a greater dependency on the cell phone, along with a of change in the wiring, the capacity to focus in not only my high school students, but also young teachers. It’s like the cell phone has become their lover.

I am a teacher who incorporates a GREAT deal of technology in my teaching, so I am trying to work with the reality of my students. I’m not an old fart “ban all the cellphones” kind of teacher by any means. But I feel like I’m seeing trends that I’d love to discuss more with you.

Regarding PLAY (fascinating ideas/questions you forward) one of the trends I find most interesting is that play is moving from imaginative and unstructured play with manipulatives, to finger games on devices — at earlier and earlier ages. I am going to start asking about “play” …
I loved playing with dolls, enacting all sorts of scenarios with a variety of voices, way past the point when most people stop playing with dolls. Like, well into my teens. I loved watching old black and white movies. And I loved being involved in cooking.

Hope we can communicate!
Tynia Thomassie
West Orange NJ

I mean, I tend to write lots of interesting insights/things I believe are real, but I never feel I chance to ‘index’ them..

I want to be able to find them again/I like to be prompted the old fashioned way, in a book, rather than a search too..

In other words, I prefer writing in some ways, because you can stick fingers in pages, and if you’ve got a contents page at the back of a book say, then you can easily trip over other relatable pages to the one you’re specifically trying to find..

I’ve never been much of an academic, but I hate writing stuff down – some philosophy, idea, quote, and then not being able to connect it to anything bigger..

I usually get interesting insights, but, because of the nature of my work, I don’t get chance to remember it, when I really it’s important TOO remember it..

I don’t know.

I get rathe stressed and anxious very easily – but as David Allen might say, it’s good not to have the same thought twice, and to do something about it is even better..

I guess if I process my idea’s, from a journal, that might help!

Before I’ve just written stuff and forgot about it..

But even then – there’s still reference material created..

Do you know what I mean?

Stressed out, over thinking, perhaps depressed as a consequence of stress, and thus also forgetful, Chris.

All the best… C:

Regarding not breathing – maybe you’ve wrote/covered/realised this already – but the non-breath happens, I believe, because the computer has so much potential, and yet equally so many flaws.

The thought that came to me, is the crouching tiger/lion, whatever – do they breath, as their victim grazes, unaware of the encroaching danger?

Probably not – they save their energy, they stay as quiet as possible, waiting to pounce & get their reward.

The trouble is, many of us, sit couching all day, being distracted by the grass in front of us, than by the goal over yonder field.

Or, perhaps rather, we’re looking at both.

We’re trying to splodge through a lot of mud, to get to our target, getting concerned, distracted, perhaps by a thousand other outstanding targets..

It’s like the computer holds unto us, hundreds if not literally MILLIONS of miracles, and, even with GTD, we still never quite reach that destination.

Perhaps that’s partly true of life in general – but so much anxiety/energy can be pent up, focusing, in one place, for hours on end, on a set of outstanding miracles, that don’t stop coming..

Perhaps it’s the fact that we can have a million cakes and eat them on the computer.

We don’t breath, because in nature, we’d need to save that energy, quiet that noise not to scare the prey, and focus all our attention on that prey in front of us.

GTD, might actually make it worse, if you’re using computers for the system..?

Certainly, the isolation people feel these days, working from home/being restricted from social dialogue in offices, drives people to make connections on the internet.

In my humble opinion, deep inside, we driven by social means.

One way or another, the less we’re rewarded socially for what we do/contribute too, the more we want to be recognised/respected.

The internet permits just about any flight of fancy we wish, regardless of whether it’s right or wrong.

Hence, we behold the possibilities, without breathing, without permission – or perhaps just seemingly without possibility; a bad paradigm – we crouch, in anticipation!

Anticipation leads to anxiety – anxiety to depression.

Anticipation is fine, if the technology in which we come to trust, delivers.

If not, we feel let down by it, and it’s creators.

Our natural instincts put us back in the positive seat.. until it doesn’t.

Or perhaps I’m just talking from my own perspective..

Anyway – I argue anticipation = no breath.

The crouching tiger, that clumsiliy gets distracted, focused, distracted, stuck in mud, bumps its head, catches its prey, misses its prey, bumps its head again.. stumbling towards..?

I am a teacher, and I think your CPA idea is great. I’ll be mentioning you in my blog spiritualteaching.wordpress.com .

Most of my memories are communal. It wasn’t until the my teens that I randomly discovered Kerouac and began traveling both intellectually and physically (read: hitchhiking with an obscenely large cardboard thumb across several countries). – am laughing to think about this now…

As I got a bit older, all of my playing was about music, almost all my friends from adolescence are musicians and many of them are still friends. It was creative, participatory, and had great qualities of being both collaborative and competitive.

Great to meet you this past wkend, you were a gracious introducer for this foo neophyte. stay in touch!

I am writing a book about about changes in higher education due to technological changes and other forces (for Stylus Publishing). I wondered if I could quote you on continuous partial attention. Specifically this from your website:

“Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today. It is different from multi-tasking. The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. We’re often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing. We give the same priority to much of what we do when we multi-task — we file and copy papers, talk on the phone, eat lunch — we get as many things done at one time as we possibly can in order to make more time for ourselves and in order to be more efficient and more productive. To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — CONTINUOUSLY. It is motivated by a desire to be a LIVE node on the network. Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected. We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter. We pay continuous partial attention in an effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. We are always in high alert when we pay continuous partial attention. This artificial sense of constant crisis is more typical of continuous partial attention than it is of multi-tasking.”

I would of course give you full credit and provide a link to your site. I think your ideas are important to the higher education community and want to be sure your message gets to them.

Best Regards,

Professor Roger McHaney
University Distinguished Teaching Scholar
Kansas State University