Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (Hardcover)

by Maggie Jackson (Author), Bill McKibben (Foreword)
Key Phrases: executive attention, New York, The Gift of Attention, Wired Love (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this richly detailed and passionately argued book, Jackson (What's Happening to Home?) warns that modern society's inability to focus heralds an impending Dark Age—an era historically characterized by the decline of a civilization amid abundance and technological advancement. Jackson posits that our near-religious allegiance to a constant state of motion and addiction to multitasking are eroding our capacity for deep, sustained, perceptive attention—the building block of intimacy, wisdom and cultural progress and stunting society's ability to comprehend what's relevant and permanent. The author provides a lively historical survey of attention, drawing upon philosophy, the impact of scientific innovations and her own experiences to investigate the possible genetic and psychological roots of distraction. While Jackson cites modern virtual life (the social network Facebook and online interactive game Second Life), her research is largely mired in the previous century, and she draws weak parallels between romance via telegraph and online dating, and supernatural spiritualism and a newfound desire to reconnect. Despite the detours (a cultural history of the fork?), Jackson has produced a well-rounded and well-researched account of the travails facing an ADD society and how to reinvigorate a renaissance of attention. (June)
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Review
"Maggie Jackson is one of the most original and perceptive journalists writing about the challenges of modern life. In Distracted, she explores our hectic, multi-tasking world. She shows that while digital technology fills our lives with information and entertainment, it is far too often at the expense of human contact and thoughtful reflection. This book will make you slow down and think." -- Senator Amy Klobuchar

"Maggie Jackson's fascinating book on America's collective attention deficit disorder is a wake-up call to all of us to take back our lives, turn off the technology, and focus on paying attention to what makes us human and fulfilled." -- Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of America the Principled and Confidence.

"This is an important book. I found it to be a harrowing documentation of our modern world's descent into fragmentation, self alienation, and emptiness -- brought on, to a large extent, by communication technologies that distract us, dislocate us, and destroy our inner lives. Others have commented on these issues, but I have never seen them gathered together and documented as completely as Maggie Jackson has done." -- Alan Lightman, author of the bestselling Einstein's Dreams and National Book Award finalist The Diagnosis and MIT professor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 327 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (June 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591026237
• ISBN-13: 978-1591026235
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

117 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that deserves your undivided attention, June 21, 2008

By	M. L Lamendola (Merriam, KS USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

A core concept of the martial arts is focus. That's where you get your power from ("your chi is concentrated"). The laser, which we use to cut through the hardest of steel, is nothing more than focused light. Any endeavor that requires brainpower, from sports to engineering, requires the ability to tune out everything except the task at hand. The ability to focus is a learned skill, and most people aren't learning it. In today's video and sound bite world, in fact, massive numbers of people are unlearning it.

Why does the stupidity epidemic continue to spread, despite its horrible cost? One answer may simply be that people are too distracted to pay attention. Consequently, they are not fully engaging their brains and focusing on what they are reading, saying, seeing, or hearing. This is a real problem in, for example, the task of driving an automobile. All of us can spot the "cell phone driver" from a distance, and there's a reason why.

It's the same reason this country has a shortage of qualified engineers, a shortage of senior project managers (average age now for the SMs in the construction industry is north of sixty), and such widespread ignorance of basic science, geography, and other subjects that require study. It's why only about half of voting-age Americans can correctly identify the three branches of the federal government.

When people are chronically distracted, something is wrong with their ability, desire, or discipline to filter out nonessential things and focus on what matters or what really has value. The result is a watered down life experience and a weakened intellect.

The effect is so pronounced and ubiquitous that, Jackson asserts, we as a society are poised on the edge of a coming dark time. I'm the first person to cry "alarmist" when an author raises dire warnings. But in this case, I have to agree with Jackson. When you read her book, which is the result of intense research, you will probably also agree.

Many other factors contribute to the stupidity epidemic, such as toxic diets, stupidity immersion (e.g., television), idiotic lyrics blaring from radios, lack of serious reading, and a failed "education" system. But the widespread lack of focus may be the main problem.

The cultural norms of today work against focus, as this book explains. Fortunately, that doesn't mean you have to accept those norms and sink into mindlessness. Jackson provides insight into the lack of focus issue and further insight into how to avoid being a casualty of this intelligence-sapping problem.

This book is well-researched, well-written, and timely. Unlike many works that hit the non-fiction list today, it actually is non-fiction. Given the subject, the author could easily digress into editorializing her personal political agenda (which is a common problem with "non" fiction today). But, she doesn't. In fact, I have no idea what it is.

The author stays focused on the issues the book is about, which, given what the book is about, should be no surprise.

If you're looking for something that will provide a formulaic solution to our ADHD culture, or ten steps to inoculate yourself against the stupidity epidemic, this isn't it. The author isn't pushing easy self-help solutions that she can later talk about on Oprah. Nor is she using a book as a way to promote herself for gigs on the rubber chicken circuit. She wrote an intellectually serious work that is engaging and enlightening.

As the author points out, much of what we read, hear, and say today is just surface noise. That's not what you get in this book. What you get is a properly developed work that is well-worth reading.

Earlier, I said Distracted is well-researched. That's a qualitative statement, so let me quantify it. The book is 268 pages from start to finish, followed by 50 pages of tightly-written bibliography (nearly 20% the size of the book itself ). There are about 60 references per chapter, with 79 references for Chapter 6. Somehow, Jackson manages to weave all this research into a flowing, engaging narrative.

Usually when a book is really good, I'll say it was a page-turner or I couldn't put it down. Oddly enough, I can't say that about Distracted. The reason, however, is the book made me stop and think. The author would sometimes make a point so profound or so worth mulling over that I just had to stop and digest it for a while. How many books can you think of that make you want to do that?

Distracted consists of three Parts. Part I explains where we are now, and consists of four chapters. These give us the "lay of the land" and many examples to show how things are. Part II delves into the "deepening twilight" and consists of three chapters. These help us see how we're trending the wrong way and what factors are contributing to those trends.

Part III poses the question, "Dark Times or Renaissance of Attention?" At several points, I put the book down just to think about some point or another, because especially in this part of the book she says much that just makes you want to stop and think.

In Chapter 8, "McThinking and the Future of the Past," Jackson looks at such issues as cultural memory, how a child's ability to delay gratification is a reliable predictor of success as an adult, and what the difference is between cultivating information and merely stockpiling it. A key concept I like is that the ability to select what to retain and what to discard is an important part of being able to handle information.

In Chapter 9, "The Gift of Attention," Jackson looks at the breaking developments in cognitive research, especially in relation to the ability to deliberately focus one's attention. Some of what she reveals is more academic, while other revelations have more immediate and practical value for the reader. She doesn't wrap it all up in a nice, neat conclusion because there are many things the reader can conclude while reading this chapter. But a common theme in such conclusions is that we can choose to be in charge of our minds rather than let distractions blow us around like so much tumbleweed.

As someone who has studied the stupidity epidemic for several years now, I am increasingly convinced we (as individuals) can choose to let ourselves become stupid or we can make deliberate choices that, by exercise of some personal discipline, spare us that fate. Most people aren't making those deliberate choices or exercising that discipline. But, many are. All of us can.

Being mindful strengthens the mind. When you're constantly distracted, you can't be mindful--you're too busy shifting mental gears all the time. The "default value" is chronic distraction, but the good news is you can choose to be mindful and you can make other choices that keep you from being chronically distracted. Jackson shows us what some of those choices are, and that's also good news. The choices aren't hard to make or to carry out.

Jackson's book goes beyond my pet interest, however. While chronic distraction is sapping our collective IQs, it's also destroying our ability to interact with each other. Here's something to think about (not in Jackson's book). Even critics of Bill Clinton acknowledge his charm and charisma. When Alan Greenspan went to meet Clinton for the first time, he was doubtful that he wanted to continue on as Chairman of the Federal Reserve with Clinton in the White House. When Greenspan left that meeting, he felt tremendously loyal to Clinton. From doubting Thomas to committed supporter in a single meeting. How did Clinton do it? Greenspan said, "He made me feel like the center of his universe. Everything else was blanked out and he was totally there. He focused on me."

When one person focuses on another and listens to that person, the other person feels respected. Respect is the foundation of any good relationship. When people never truly engage with other people, haven't they also given up on what it means to be human?

If someone is talking to you in person and the phone rings, show respect by ignoring the phone. If you have a television on and someone visits you, turn the television off and focus on that person. If a child talks to you, stop what you are doing and listen. Be completely there. If you don't understand the power of such actions and the cost of failing to take them, read Chapter Two.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now, Readers, Please Pay...Uh...Attention!, June 30, 2008

By	Dr. Jonathan Dolhenty (Port Orford, OR United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

There is little doubt that over the past few decades, particularly during what has been referred to as "the computer age," the world of intellectual activity has substantially changed. So-called "multitasking" has become common. "Sound-bites" provide many people with all the news they get. Rapid-moving video games provide many with most of the entertainment they experience. The technology of "virtual" reality is becoming so "real" it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what is "actually real" from what is "virtually real." Add to all this the reports that attention deficit symdrome (ADD) and hyperactive behavior among the young are growing problems in our fast-moving society, and one might be tempted to conclude that we are, in fact, "distracted" to the point where the erosion of attention will result in a soon-to-occur "dark age."

This latter point, of course, is a paraphrase of the title of Maggie Jackson's latest book "Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age." The major problem we face now, Jackson seems to say, is INATTENTION; that is, we are no longer engaging in such activities as reflection, searching for deeper meanings, taking time to relax and participate in traditionally intimate conversations, getting to know people in a personable way, taking the time to discern the really important from the merely transitory, and so on. We as a society and as individuals are, in other words, not paying ATTENTION. At least to the things we ought to be paying proper attention to.

In her book, Jackson provides a historical survey of the problem, cites a lot of research drawn from a wide range of scholarly fields including empirical science and philosophy, and provides quotations from a diverse population of thinkers who have considered aspects of the main problem she addresses. There is a lot of detail here to be digested; the reader, hopefully, is not suffering from the very problem the author discusses.

One may argue, however, as to whether the current situation will lead to a genuine "dark age." Some might say that that suggestion might be just a little bit hyperbolic. Nevertheless, the author does raise some interesting questions and attempts to provide some workable solutions. So, in this period of constant motion, multitasking, social networking, instant messaging, and electronic overload, it might just be worthwhile for everyone to slow down a little, sit back and relax, read this book, and pay ATTENTION to what Jackson is saying.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An ironic investigation, January 26, 2009

By	David D. Metcalf "David Metcalf" (Centreville, VA,) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a culture in which Attention Deficit Disorder seems endemic, the health and integrity of American communities appears waning, and individuals seem incapable of managing real and meaningful relationships and communications, Maggie Jackson's Distracted tackles a fascinating and important topic. However, while Jackson addresses these issues, her investigation wanders, her thesis remains unproven, and both reader and writer ultimately end up 'distracted' from answering the key questions the book proposes.

Jackson's book is not without its merits. She examines the crucial issue of attentional capacity and growth in children, and how electronic stimuli fracture attention and foster an 'attention deficit' society. She effectively discusses America's simultaneity - the idea that internet connectivity, technology, and travel, have rendered people both 'everywhere and nowhere.' Decrying this neo-nomadic culture, she also asserts - with convincing narratives - that simultaneity and attentional distraction tends toward the dissolution of American families and relationships.

However, "Distracted" also delves into topics that fail to demonstrably progress its thesis. Jackson discusses individual people and problems which only bear tangential importance to the implications of a 'distracted' society. The virtual world's treatment of death, the dangerous preference of information by an unreliable internet rather than books, and a curious digression on the eating habits of an overworking population, are but a few topics that waste the reader's time. Here and elsewhere, Jackson tries to weave a quilt with discordant fabrics and patterns, and the result is a disjointed and scattered product.

Inevitably, the expository pace of the book slows to a crawl, and what could and should have been said in far less pages and with a more direct pattern of argument, is danced around. The investigation wanders into anecdotal digressions that Jackson fails to convincingly tie to her overall theme, and her argument becomes - ironically - "distracted." The culprit might be Jackson's palpable nostalgia for all things past, a disposition that drags her into these digressions and ultimately leads her to her utterly unsubstantiated doomsday prediction of a "coming dark age." I'm sorry Ms. Jackson (and Outkast), a reader will not simply digest portentous soothsaying without you convincingly connecting the dots of such an assertion. The theme this book tackles is so significant and enticing, yet at the end, I can not help but feel so unsatisfied at the unreached potential.

The scattered structure of the book mimes the message, and the argument's path takes several wrong turns to the point that the reader is lost. However, the book should be commended for its humor, because it's occasionally satirically ironic. As reader Kirtland Peterson astutely concluded, this book is "a product of the culture it describes." Unfortunately, within the text of her book, her amorphous thesis achieves the very simultaneity of the neo-nomadic American society she describes: "Everywhere and nowhere."