Workshops
The paradox of communication. Towards a society of inattention?
Filippo Dal Fiore
Austrian Academy of Sciences
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning
note: slightly revised solicitiation to encourage conceptual and in-progress contributions
Abstract
The overabundance of communication opportunities inside and outside the workplace, through e- mails, instant messages and mobile devices, can be detrimental to their degree of reflectiveness and care.
People are often unable to properly deal with an excess of communications; their continuous partial attention could lead to a more superficial and disrupted approach, in some cases resulting in digitally amplified problems. Implications are still unclear, both on the level of accuracy with which decisions are taken and initiatives are managed as well as on social capital.
This workshop is aimed at exploring this issue and its relevance in the social and organizational sciences. Without denying the positive sides of hyper-connectivity and multi-tasking, it has the final scope of shaping a multi-disciplinary agenda on the topic
Theme of the workshop and organizational details
The majority of social science research done so far have been dealing with the many positive sides of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), as new media to empower individuals and organizations. Less resources have been invested in investigating the real capacity of individuals and organizations to control ICTs rather than being controlled by them.
This workshop proposal is based on the assumption that human beings have limited cognitive capabilities, so that their ability to properly communicate seems to depend on a trade-off: the more communication activities they’re involved in, the less amount of time and attention is at their disposal for each of them.
In the recent past, a few researches and an abundance of anecdotal evidence point out that an overabundance of digital communication opportunities inside and outside the workplace (namely e- mails, instant messages, mobile phones calls and texts) not only can lead to info-addiction or info- stress but can be detrimental to their degree of reflectiveness and proper care. While Stone (2002) argues that, in an effort to effectively scan for opportunities and not to miss anything, people enter a mind state of "continuous partial attention", for Baylins (2006) they are increasingly reactive, rather than thoughtful and forward thinking. Davenport e Beck (2001) consider attention as the single scarcest resource in today’s economy, in which there’s not enough human attention to meet the information demand of business and society.
As in his work on "The paradox of choice. Why more is less," Schwartz (2004) investigates the psychological costs of dealing with a burdensome number of choices in a post/hyper-modern world, the objective of this workshop is that of inquiring into the social and organizational costs of an excess of communications. Such costs are amplified by the fact that all digital communications leave a digital trace and can be easily copied (cc) or forwarded (fwd) as they are, so that miscommunications are likely to be visible for a longer time and to more people. Being provocative, one could speak of an emerging society of inattention, characterized by several peculiarities:
- A tendency to waste communication activities, better than being parsimonious with them;
- A condition in which it’s as easy to initiate a communication as to break it off or ignore it;
- A tendency to tolerate a work/living condition in which one is constantly interrupted, in same cases leading to an artificial sense of constant crisis (Stone, 2002);
- A hybrid language that blends the immediacy of spoken language with the lastingness of the written one, with double-edged sword effects;
- An increasing difficulty to prioritize communication activities in “high noise” environments;
- A necessity to ignore or to pay only partial attention to the physical surroundings while interacting with digital devices;
- An increasing difficulty to maintain boundaries between different activities/topics and between work and rest of life;
- A condition in which inattentions, mistakes and problems are highly visible and durable, thus being more effective in their consequences.
One driver of such a new situation seems to be gratuity of a few communication tools, namely e- mails and instant messages. The lack of financial barriers to entry is reinforced by the low psychological and social barriers of written digital communication: hidden behind screens, people can avoid the burden of physical exposure entailed in face-to-face communications and phone calls.
Such emerging society of inattention could possibly have major implications on the level of accuracy with which decisions are taken and initiatives are managed, as well as on the very quality of the relationships involved and on social capital. Also, there is an increasing need for more exploratory research on several other sides of the issue; among others:
- work-life balance and quality of life (Clark, 2000; Shumate & Fulk, 2004).
- psychological independence and well-being (Turkle, 2006, on "the tethered self");
- cognitive and learning abilities (Foerde et al., 2006);
- creativity (Bailyn, 2006; Domm & Forbes, 2004);
- personal/collective efficiency at the workplace and workplace interruption management (Kebinger, 2005; Nielsen, 2003, on "information pollution");
A better understanding of all possible emerging dynamics is more than ever necessary, given the advancing of the new generations of digital natives, the multiplication of digital equipment and the progressive thinning of the amount of time spent in non-digital activities. In parallel, more research is needed in the neurosciences to explore if, how and under which conditions the human brain co-evolves with ICTs and, in case, which brain systems are elicited or neglected by multi-tasking and partial attention.
The proposed workshop will be open to scientists and practitioners of all disciplines, to debate the conditions under which the depicted society of inattention scenario is true and the ones under which it is not.
Taking for granted that it's not only a matter of the digital media per se but also and most of all of how they are used and of the level of agreement on a given netiquette, the optimal output from this workshop shall be that of shaping a multi-disciplinary research agenda on the topic. Without denying the many benefits of hyper-connectivity and multi-tasking, it is also aimed at enucleating recommendations on how to build digital systems that protect users' attention and, even more importantly, on how to design educational initiatives explicitly dedicated to the correct use of new media.
Participants should email expressions of interest and abstracts to Filippo Dal Fiore dalfiore AT mit.edu by May 25th.
Invitations have also been sent through a broad network of fellow researchers; we hope to include a few outstanding scholars in the field, namely MIT professors Sherry Turkle and Richard Sennett, to provide their input and opinion to the workshop, hopefully by means of an on-line video conference. 10 to 15 scholars will be selected to present their work and participate into a structured debate aimed at shaping a multi-disciplinary research agenda on the topic. The workshop will be full-day.
References
Bailyn, Lotte (2006). Breaking the Mold: Redesigning Work for Productive and Satisfying Lives, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press
Clark, S.C. (2000). Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations, 53(6), 747-770
Davenport, T., Beck, J. (2001). The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing
Domm, R., Forbes, B. (2004). Creativity and Productivity: Resolving the conflict. SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol.69
Foerde, K., Knowlton, B., Poldrack, R. (2006). Modulation of competing memory systems by distraction. Proceeding of the National Academy of Science of the United States
Kebinger. J. (2005). Current research in workplace interruption management. Paper COMP171 in http://www.monkeyatlarge.com/blog/wp-content/interruptionsresearchsurveypaper.pdf. Accessed November 25, 2006
Nielsen, J. (2003). Information Pollution, in Alertbox: current issues in web usability http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030811.html. Accessed November 25, 2006
Schwartz, B. (2004). The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, New York: Harper Collins
Shumate, M., Fulk, J. (2004) Boundaries and role conflict when work and family are collocated: A communication network and symbolic interaction approach. Human Relations, 57(1), 55-74.
Stone, L. (2002). Continuous Partial Attention. Speech given at conference on Marketing in a Post Advertising World, Harvard Club, New York
Turkle, S. (2006). Tethering, in C.A.Jones, ed., Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art, Cambridge, MA: List Visual Art Center and MIT Press
Background and contact information of the organizer
Filippo Dal Fiore is a social scientist, working on the impacts of digitization and Internet connectivity on society and the economy. After graduation in communication sciences, side by side with sociologists, pedagogists, economists, urbanists and software engineers he has been conducting empirical, applied and speculative research on e-learning, social network analysis and innovation, inter-organisational knowledge management, mobile media for tourism, information technology and mobility/urban analysis, broadband and Wi-Fi policies.
His major works have been published by McGraw-Hill (a manual on E-learning), American Behavioural Scientist (a special issue on Communities Vs Networks, with the proceedings of a workshop with the same name organized at C&T2005) and UTET (a book on Social Change). The applied research initiatives he coordinated have been featured by Wired, Technology Review and BBC, while adopted as a best practice by the Italian Ministry of Communication.
He is currently affiliated with the z-GIS Center at the University of Salzburg, and with the department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (SENSEable City Lab). Also, he is a PhD candidate in Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Contact information:
http://senseable.mit.edu/people/dalfiore.htm
Filippo Dal Fiore
Research Affiliate
Austrian Academy of Sciences and M.I.T.
dalfiore AT mit.edu
M.I.T. 10-400
77, Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA, 02139 USA
Tel. +1-617-2537926
Mob. +39-340-5525603