Attention, Please!

Parents and teachers worry that today's high school students won't learn properly if they are busy texting and tweeting during class. Managers and CEOs worry that their employees are bringing down productivity by pushing work off their desktops to make room for Facebook and Hulu. But undivided attention is a myth. Attention is never total; it operates like an economy. We give a little here, and a little there, sometimes it is more valuable than other times, and it requires something in between total regulation and absolute freedom. This book is about understanding the conditions that shape the economy of attention, and using information technology-the very tools of distraction-to choreograph the focus of groups. Attention, Please! is a plea for the reconsideration of attention in contemporary culture. It is a theoretically informed book that offers practical design solutions for everyday situations. From the classroom to the business meeting to main streets and public plazas, it moves the focus from simply the design of software to the appropriate correlation between software, hardware, objects and people to maximize the effects of group action and meaningful interactions.