Experts claim that Americans are becoming savvier multi-taskers. I don’t believe that at all. I prescribe to the Linda Stone school of continuous partial attention. I think there is a slight but definite difference that influences how we spend our time and accomplish tasks.
Our lives are defined by time. Time runs our businesses, our marketing efforts, and how we live our daily lives. How we use our time defines who we are as people and what we see (and don't see) in the world around us.
Attention is the currency of time.
We are confined to 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year. It’s how we use that time, specifically how we devote our attention in the time we have, that defines who we are. But with a fundamental shift in how people are paying attention, our efforts as marketers are drastically different. We need to learn how to appropriately fit in the “stream” of consumers’ lives while also creating a message that will resonate.
Continuous partial attention is the need to pay attention to everything continuously. This is a shift from multi-tasking where several things are being accomplished simultaneously for efficiency. Continuous partial attention is about not missing anything. We are only concentrating so much on the task in front of us because at the same time we are keeping our eyes on our Blackberries (or looking for the flashing message red light), checking Tweetdeck pop ups, and looking at 10 tabs on our screen.
It’s like being in a classroom in the middle of Times Square.
As marketers, what are we doing about the shift towards partial attention? Becoming more social online, where consumers’ attention is often shifted is only part of the solution. What else can we do?
-Carla
Photo Credit: boynton
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tagged as attention, continuous partial attention, multi-tasking
