One of the things that make humans different from other animals is that we make and use tools. The utility and variety of tools accelerated during the Industrial Revolution. In the past generation the rate of change in the ubiquity and power of tools due to information technology is truly breathtaking.
But the power and utility of modern IT has had a subtle and insidious side effect that most of us have experienced (even if we’re not aware of it): the theft of our attention. An excellent article from the Farnum Street Blog warns that “our attention is for sale, and we’re ceding it a little at a time as the tools get better and better at fulfilling their function.”
In short, our tools are using us.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to become more aware of this phenomenon. The theft of our attention is really the theft of our time…and therefore our lives. “Don’t Let Your Technology Tools Use You.”
If you find the article compelling, check out Vistage Speaker Maura Thomas’ 15 minute TED talk on managing attention versus time which recaps the half-day session on the topic that she has led over 300 times for Vistage CEOs and Key Executives across the county.
