Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age | 
 enlarge | Author: Maggie Jackson
Creator: Bill Mckibben
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.98
Buy New: $15.00
You Save: $10.98 (42%)
New (36) Used (12) from $14.89
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 20344
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 327
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1591026237
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.0973
EAN: 9781591026235
ASIN: 1591026237
Publication Date: June 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
We have vast oceans of information at our disposal, yet increasingly we seek knowledge with brief glimpses at the Yahoo headlines while juggling other tasks. We are networked as never before, but we tend to communicate even with our most intimate friends and family via instant messaging, email, and fleeting face-to-face moments that are rescheduled a dozen times, then punctuated when they do occur with pings and beeps and more multitasking. Welcome to the land of distraction. Despite our wondrous technologies and scientific advances, we are nurturing a culture of diffusion, fragmentation, and detachment. In this new world, something is amiss. And that something is - attention.Journey with Maggie Jackson as she explores the many ways in which we are eroding our capacity for deep, sustained attention - the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress. In her sweeping quest to unravel the nature of attention and detail its erosion, she introduces us to scientists, cartographers, marketers, educators, wired teens, virtual lovers from the telegraph age, and roboticists building smart machines to comfort and care for us. She takes us from the nineteenth-century roots of our mobile, virtual multitasking ways into a darkening future of snippets, glimpses, skimming, McThinking, and mistrust. Taking us beyond "Blink and Faster", Jackson makes it clear that if we continue down this road of scattered attention spans and widespread societal ADD, we will be in danger of squandering and devaluing the essence of humanity, and our technological age could ultimately slip into cultural decline.But we are just as capable of igniting a renaissance of attention by strengthening our varied powers of focus and perception, the keys to judgement, memory, morality, and happiness. She describes some of the exciting new scientific research that shows how these skills can be nurtured. "Distraction" is unique in being simultaneously an original expose of the multifaceted nature of attention, an engaging and often surprising portrait of post-modern life, and a compelling roadmap for cultivating sustained focus and nurturing a more enriched and literate society. Pull over, hit the pause button, silence the ringer, and prepare to encounter our land of distraction - this may be your first, and maybe your last, chance to really fathom it.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Distracted November 16, 2008
D. Hoyne (Riverdale, NY)
Scary book, but definitely true. Definitely worth the read time. I actually felt bad when I got distracted away from reading the book.
 too disorganized, too long, too many other sources quoted September 18, 2008
Jen F. (Atlanta, GA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
While I find the topic of the book interesting, Jackson's writing is itself a product of the "age of distraction." It is poorly organized, going from one loosely connected anecedote/story to another without clear direction. She quotes so many other sources that it's difficult to find a sentence that isn't made up of bit quotes from various authors and experts. Many sentences are made up entirely of a quote here from this person followed by a quote there from that person. Jackson also reiterates the same point so many times that it becomes redundant.
 Insightful Book September 6, 2008
Luis Figueroa (Coronado, CA USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I recently read "Distracted" and found it insightful in its conclusion. It certainly makes a case for the dangers of the many distractions (in particular electronic) we encouonter in our incresingly complex modern world. The potential for impacting our ability to think, focus and make rational decisions maybe seriously being underestimated. I would expect we might see more detailed research that might help provide additional insights and guidance for better adaptation. In particular, Buddhist meditation techniques which focus on the "Present Moment" might play an increasing role in the future. One word of caution---allow yourself a "distraction free environment" if you should decide to read the book, since the words do not flow easily.
Attention span builds cultures, connections and social structure September 4, 2008
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Attention span builds cultures, connections and social structure - yet it's something lacking in the modern world where multitasking is a given. DISTRACTED: THE EROSION OF ATTENTION AND THE COMING DARK AGE examines the nature of attention, its impact, and its erosion in the modern world, offering a history and analysis which will appeal to college-level collections strong in either health or social issues. Chapters consider awareness, focus, and how they affect the hallmarks of achievement. br /
Chronicle of Our ADD Society ... August 9, 2008
Kevin Quinley (Fairfax, VA)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I began this book with high hopes but it just never grabbed me; maybe it was me and I just got distracted. The thesis of the book I think could have been developed convincingly in about ten pages. I doubt there are many who might dispute that we live in an ADD society. br / br /The solutions? Don't necessarily look to Maggie Jackson or her book for answers, though she states up front that it is not her aim to offer a solution. br / br /A fairly effective - if over-written - description of our ADD society. br /
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