A Short Manifesto on the Future of Attention

In this thought-provoking piece from Design Observer, Michael Erard reflects upon the future of attention in a time when people are overwhelmed by information coming at them from all directions. He suggests making things more brief and then goes on to imagine "attention festivals" where one tent would show 30-second films, guitar solos, haiku, and in another tent you could listen to ringtones and read tweets. He foresees a retail sector for cultural products where the aisles were organized around the attention span required. Pricing would be different too; single TV episodes would be more expensive than the whole season of shows. Erard also advocates software to help us audit our attentional expenditures.

These ideas pump up the importance of the spiritual practice of attention and its many roles in our life as we consider the information culture, time, and creativity.