Should I be committed? Oh wait, I work for Bank of America – I’m already in the Asylum.

Your thoughts have been an inspiration to something I’ve been working on. I’ve started a company, and have built a service, that allows us to draw digital boundaries in our physical/digital life so that we can stay more focused on the here and now. I’d be grateful to hear your feedback when you’ve got some time… Thanks, — Arnon

I have it – seems to make sense.

Legs need oxygen, lack of exercise, funny tingly sensations..

Hope you’re keeping well!

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 was wondering around the TED site, plying some intent but little focus. Currently searching for partners in a new opportunity in social networking. My background is more in performance narrative.

Anyway this meandering lead me to your door. I would love to discuss my idea with you. I think it lends well into your expertise.

After reading your thoughts on ‘continuos partial attention’, I thought I’d share the following with you first. I’ve edited down articles for convenience. Science is so clever. It can now measure what us storytellers have known forever. Enjoy:

Contemporary neuroscience has brought us much closer to understanding the neural basis for emotion sharing abilities – the mechanisms underlying empathy. Knowledge of the relation of empathy and narrative are hardly new. Storytellers around the first stone aged campfires inherently knew this.

Now, however mirror neurons in the brain can be recorded as we witness another’s emotional reactions. This newly enabled capacity to study empathy at the cellular level encourages speculation about human empathy’s positive consequences.

For the first time we can investigate whether differences in mirror neuron activity is altered by exposure to art, teaching and literature. Neuroscientists have already declared that people scoring high on empathy tests have especially busy mirror neuron systems in their brains. Fiction writers are likely to be among these high empathy individuals.

Raymond Mar, a psychology at the University of Toronto, shows that exposure to narrative fiction is positively associated with improved social abilities. He concludes, “Stories could prove a powerful tool for educating both children and adults about understanding others, an important skill currently under-stressed in most educational settings.”
(psych.utoronto.ca/%7Eraymond/bio.html)

“Emotional contagion comes into play in our reactions to narrative, for we are also story-sharing creatures. The oral storyteller not only takes advantage of our tendency to share feelings socially by doing the voices and facial expressions of characters, but also tacitly trains young children and members of the wider social group to recognize and give priority to culturally valued emotional states.”
(“Journal of Research in Personality” Oct 2006: 694-712)

Cheers,

Chris