Download or read book The Problem of Distraction written by Paul North and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-19 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an age of distraction. Contemporary analyses of culture, politics, techno-science, and psychology insist on this. They often suggest remedies for it, or ways to capitalize on it. Yet they almost never investigate the meaning and history of distraction itself. This book corrects this lack of attention. It inquires into the effects of distraction, defined not as the opposite of attention, but as truly discontinuous intellect. Human being has to be reconceived, according to this argument, not as quintessentially thought-bearing, but as subject to repeated, causeless blackouts of mind. The Problem of Distraction presents the first genealogy of the concept from Aristotle to the largely forgotten, early twentieth-century efforts by Kafka, Heidegger, and Benjamin to revolutionize the humanities by means of distraction. Further, the book makes the case that our present troubles cannot be solved by recovering or enhancing attention. Not-always-thinking beings are beset by radical breaks in their experience, but in this way they are also receptive to what has not and cannot yet be called experience.
Download or read book Distraction written by Natalie M. Phillips and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Attention: An fMRI Study of Reading Jane Austen
Download or read book Distracted written by Maggie Jackson and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is an important book...a harrowing documentation of our modern world's descent into fragmentation, self alienation, and emptiness-brought on, to a large extent, by communication technologies that distract us, dislocate us, and destroy our inner lives.--Alan Lightman, author of the bestselling Einstein's Dreams and National Book Award finalist The Diagnosis and MIT professorThis fascinating book on America's collective ADD is a wake-up call to all of us to take back our lives, turn off the technology, and focus on paying attention to what makes us human and fulfilled.--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School Professor and author of America the Principled and ConfidenceWe have oceans of information at our disposal, yet we increasingly seek knowledge in online headlines glimpsed on the run. We are networked as never before, but we connect with friends and family via e-mail and fleeting face-to-face moments that are rescheduled and interrupted a dozen times. Despite our wondrous technologies and scientific advances, we are nurturing a culture of diffusion, fragmentation, and detachment.In this new world, something crucial is missing: attention-the key to recapturing our ability to connect, reflect, and relax; the secret to coping with a mobile, multitasking, virtual world. How did we get to the point where we keep one eye on our Blackberry and one eye on our spouse-in bed? We can contact millions of people worldwide, so why is it hard to schedule a simple family supper? Most importantly, what can we do about it? Distracted vividly shows how day by day, our hyper-mobile, cyber-centric, interrupted lives erode our capacity for deep focus and awareness. The implications for a healthy society are stark.Attention is the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress. Jackson makes it clear that if we squander our powers of attention, our technological age could ultimately slip into cultural decline. And yet we are just as capable of igniting a renaissance of attention by strengthening our skills of focus and perception, the keys to judgment, memory, morality, and happiness. Jackson reveals the astonishing scientific discoveries that can help us rekindle our powers of attention in a world of speed and overload. She offers us a wake-up call, and reasons for hope.Distracted is an original exposé of the multifaceted nature of attention, an engaging and often surprising portrait of postmodern life, and a compelling roadmap for cultivating sustained focus and nurturing a more enriched and literate society. More than ever, we cannot afford to let distraction become the marker of our time.Maggie Jackson (New York, NY) is an award-winning author and journalist who writes the popular Balancing Acts column in the Boston Globe. Her work also has appeared in The New York Times and on National Public Radio, among other national publications. Her acclaimed first book, What's Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age, examined the loss of home as a refuge.
Download or read book Distracted written by James M. Lang and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2020-10-20 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Keeping students focused can be difficult in a world filled with distractions -- which is why a renowned educator created a scientific solution to one of every teacher's biggest problems. Why is it so hard to get students to pay attention? Conventional wisdom blames iPhones, insisting that access to technology has ruined students' ability to focus. The logical response is to ban electronics in class. But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. We learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information. In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students' attention. Brimming with ideas and grounded in new research, Distracted offers an innovative plan for the most important lesson of all: how to learn.
Download or read book The Distracted Mind written by Adam Gazzaley and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-10-27 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “brilliant and practical” study of why our brains aren’t built for media multitasking—and how we can learn to live with technology in a more balanced way (Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart) Most of us will freely admit that we are obsessed with our devices. We pride ourselves on our ability to multitask—read work email, reply to a text, check Facebook, watch a video clip. Talk on the phone, send a text, drive a car. Enjoy family dinner with a glowing smartphone next to our plates. We can do it all, 24/7! Never mind the errors in the email, the near-miss on the road, and the unheard conversation at the table. In The Distracted Mind, Adam Gazzaley and Larry Rosen—a neuroscientist and a psychologist—explain why our brains aren't built for multitasking, and suggest better ways to live in a high-tech world without giving up our modern technology. The authors explain that our brains are limited in their ability to pay attention. We don't really multitask but rather switch rapidly between tasks. Distractions and interruptions, often technology-related—referred to by the authors as “interference”—collide with our goal-setting abilities. We want to finish this paper/spreadsheet/sentence, but our phone signals an incoming message and we drop everything. Even without an alert, we decide that we “must” check in on social media immediately. Gazzaley and Rosen offer practical strategies, backed by science, to fight distraction. We can change our brains with meditation, video games, and physical exercise; we can change our behavior by planning our accessibility and recognizing our anxiety about being out of touch even briefly. They don't suggest that we give up our devices, but that we use them in a more balanced way.
Download or read book Delivered from Distraction written by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2005-12-27 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “If you read only one book about attention deficit disorder, it should be Delivered from Distraction.”—Michael Thompson, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling co-author of Raising Cain In 1994, Driven to Distraction sparked a revolution in our understanding of attention deficit disorder. Widely recognized as the classic in the field, the book has sold more than a million copies. Now a second revolution is under way in the approach to ADD, and the news is great. Drug therapies, our understanding of the role of diet and exercise, even the way we define the disorder–all are changing radically. And doctors are realizing that millions of adults suffer from this condition, though the vast majority of them remain undiagnosed and untreated. In this new book, Drs. Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey build on the breakthroughs of Driven to Distraction to offer a comprehensive and entirely up-to-date guide to living a successful life with ADD. As Hallowell and Ratey point out, “attention deficit disorder” is a highly misleading description of an intriguing kind of mind. Original, charismatic, energetic, often brilliant, people with ADD have extraordinary talents and gifts embedded in their highly charged but easily distracted minds. Tailored expressly to ADD learning styles and attention spans, Delivered from Distraction provides accessible, engaging discussions of every aspect of the condition, from diagnosis to finding the proper treatment regime. Inside you’ll discover • whether ADD runs in families • new diagnostic procedures, tests, and evaluations • the links between ADD and other conditions • how people with ADD can free up their inner talents and strengths • the new drugs and how they work, and why they’re not for everyone • exciting advances in nonpharmaceutical therapies, including changes in diet, exercise, and lifestyle • how to adapt the classic twelve-step program to treat ADD • sexual problems associated with ADD and how to resolve them • strategies for dealing with procrastination, clutter, and chronic forgetfulness ADD is a trait, a way of living in the world. It only becomes a disorder when it impairs your life. Featuring gripping profiles of patients with ADD who have triumphed, Delivered from Distraction is a wise, loving guide to releasing the positive energy that all people with ADD hold inside. If you have ADD or care about someone who does, this is the book you must read. Praise for Delivered from Distraction “The definitive source of information on attention deficit disorder.”—Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., director, Child Study Center, New York University School of Medicine “A deeply wise and truly helpful book, written with frankness, humor, and tremendous empathy.”—Perri Klass, M.D., co-author of Quirky Kids
Download or read book Driven to Distraction Revised written by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Groundbreaking and comprehensive, Driven to Distraction has been a lifeline to the approximately eighteen million Americans who are thought to have ADHD. Now the bestselling book is revised and updated with current medical information for a new generation searching for answers. Through vivid stories and case histories of patients—both adults and children—Hallowell and Ratey explore the varied forms ADHD takes, from hyperactivity to daydreaming. They dispel common myths, offer helpful coping tools, and give a thorough accounting of all treatment options as well as tips for dealing with a diagnosed child, partner, or family member. But most importantly, they focus on the positives that can come with this “disorder”—including high energy, intuitiveness, creativity, and enthusiasm.
Download or read book The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction written by Alan Jacobs and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, cultural commentators have sounded the alarm about the dire state of reading in America. Americans are not reading enough, they say, or reading the right books, in the right way. In this book, Alan Jacobs argues that, contrary to the doomsayers, reading is alive and well in America. There are millions of devoted readers supporting hundreds of enormous bookstores and online booksellers. Oprah's Book Club is hugely influential, and a recent NEA survey reveals an actual uptick in the reading of literary fiction. Jacobs's interactions with his students and the readers of his own books, however, suggest that many readers lack confidence; they wonder whether they are reading well, with proper focus and attentiveness, with due discretion and discernment. Many have absorbed the puritanical message that reading is, first and foremost, good for you--the intellectual equivalent of eating your Brussels sprouts. For such people, indeed for all readers, Jacobs offers some simple, powerful, and much needed advice: read at whim, read what gives you delight, and do so without shame, whether it be Stephen King or the King James Version of the Bible. In contrast to the more methodical approach of Mortimer Adler's classic How to Read a Book (1940), Jacobs offers an insightful, accessible, and playfully irreverent guide for aspiring readers. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of approaching literary fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, and the book explores everything from the invention of silent reading, reading responsively, rereading, and reading on electronic devices. Invitingly written, with equal measures of wit and erudition, The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction will appeal to all readers, whether they be novices looking for direction or old hands seeking to recapture the pleasures of reading they first experienced as children.
Download or read book Distraction written by Bruce Sterling and published by Spectra. This book was released on 2011-08-17 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's November 2044, an election year, and the state of the Union is a farce. The government is broke, the cities are privately owned, and the military is shaking down citizens in the streets. Washington has become a circus and no one knows that better than Oscar Valparaiso. A political spin doctor, Oscar has always made things look good. Now he wants to make a difference. But Oscar has a skeleton in his closet. His only ally: Dr. Greta Penninger, a gifted neurologist at the bleeding edge of the neural revolution. Together they're out to spread a very dangerous idea whose time has come. And so have their enemies: every technofanatic, government goon, and laptop assassin in America. Oscar and Greta might not survive to change the world, but they'll put a new spin on it. From the Paperback edition.
Download or read book The Distraction Trap written by Frances Booth and published by Pearson UK. This book was released on 2013-04-29 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you're worried that you're losing the power to concentrate The Distraction Trap can help. Learn how you can easily release your life from the steely grip of modern technology where you're always available and always connected. Discover how you can radically boost your productivity by keeping your whole brain and both eyes on the task in hand. You may think you can do ten things at once, with a scattered thinking approach and expect to do everything well and on time. Well, you can't. The Distraction Trap will empower you to focus and prioritise, switch off your email, say 'no' to social media ruling your life and help you rediscover your lost powers of concentration. Your campaign to reclaim your life starts here and now!
Download or read book Distraction written by Mark Curtis and published by Futuretext. This book was released on 2005 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steps back to look at our use of technology and draws some uncomfortable and challenging conclusions about what society may need to do to get the best, not the worst, out of the digital era. Why are our fundamental notions of space and time changing? Why going mobile is the big difference? Can we sustain current levels of communication? And more.
Download or read book Infinite Distraction written by Dominic Pettman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-01-11 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often argued that contemporary media homogenize our thoughts and actions, without us being fully aware of the restrictions they impose. But what if the problem is not that we are all synchronized to the same motions or moments, but rather dispersed into countless different emotional micro-experiences? What if the effect of so-called social media is to calibrate the interactive spectacle so that we never fully feel the same way as other potential allies at the same time? While one person is fuming about economic injustice or climate change denial, another is giggling at a cute cat video. And, two hours late, vice versa. The nebulous indignation which constitutes the very fuel of true social change can be redirected safely around the network, avoiding any dangerous surges of radical activity. In this short and provocative book, Dominic Pettman examines the deliberate deployment of what he calls 'hypermodulation,' as a key strategy encoded into the contemporary media environment. His account challenges the various narratives that portray social media as a sinister space of synchronized attention, in which we are busily clicking ourselves to death. This critical reflection on the unprecedented power of the Internet requires us to rethink the potential for infinite distraction that our latest technologies now allow.
Download or read book Distraction written by Erin Mikulec and published by . This book was released on 2021-08-06 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Movements such as the Women's March on Washington and #MeToo have created a national dialogue about the sexual harassment of women that is still prevalent in the 21st century in the United States. While there are many factors that play into how girls are socialized to conform to traditional gender roles, school plays a significant part in this process. For instance, every fall, there are news stories about dress code standards for girls and young women in schools throughout the country, with district spokespersons often citing that girls create a "distraction" to the boys in their classes. The problem, therefore, is framed in terms of a higher value placed on the learning of boys than the agency that girls have over their own bodies. This book, which takes an intersectionality approach to the topic, seeks to explore the ways in which girls are sexualized through school practices, beginning as early as pre-school and continuing through all levels of education into their adult lives. The book will examine how schools serve as gendered spaces and genderizing spaces that reinforce societal norms and expectations for girls and young women. Distraction: Girls, School, and Sexuality is suitable for undergraduate and graduate course in women's and gender studies.
Download or read book Addicted To Distraction written by Bruce Charlton and published by Legend Press Ltd. This book was released on 2014-07-02 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For most of us the Mass Media is the focus of our lives - it provides the material which is discussed and debated, it articulates our responses and it provides the framework by which a vast potential volume of material is filtered, prioritised and interpreted.
Download or read book The Distraction Addiction written by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of our time: can we reclaim our lives in an age that feels busier and more distracting by the day? We've all found ourselves checking email at the dinner table, holding our breath while waiting for Outlook to load, or sitting hunched in front of a screen for an hour longer than we intended. Mobile devices and the web have invaded our lives, and this is a big idea book that addresses one of the biggest questions of our age: can we stay connected without diminishing our intelligence, attention spans, and ability to really live? Can we have it all? Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a renowned Stanford technology guru, says yes. The Distraction Addiction is packed with fascinating studies, compelling research, and crucial takeaways. Whether it's breathing while Facebook refreshes, or finding creative ways to take a few hours away from the digital crush, this book is about the ways to tune in without tuning out.
Download or read book Driven to Distraction at Work written by Ned Hallowell and published by Harvard Business Review Press. This book was released on 2014-11-18 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you driven to distraction at work? Bestselling author Edward M. Hallowell, MD, the world’s leading expert on ADD and ADHD, has set his sights on a new goal: helping people feel more in control and productive at work. You know the feeling: you can’t focus; you feel increasingly overwhelmed by a mix of nonstop demands and technology that seems to be moving at the speed of light; and you’re frustrated just trying to get everything done well—and on time. Not only is this taking a toll on performance, it’s impacting your sense of well-being outside the office. It’s time to reclaim control. Dr. Hallowell now identifies the underlying reasons why people lose their ability to focus at work. He explains why commonly offered solutions like “learn to manage your time better” or “make a to-do list” don’t work because they ignore the deeper issues that are the true causes of mental distraction. Based on his years of helping clients develop constructive ways to deal with distraction, Dr. Hallowell provides a set of practical and reliable techniques to show how to sustain a productive mental state. In Part 1 of the book, he identifies the six most common ways people lose the ability to focus at work—what he calls “screen sucking” (internet/social media addiction), multitasking, idea hopping (never finishing what you start), worrying, playing the hero, and dropping the ball—and he explains the underlying psychological and emotional dynamics driving each behavior. Part 2 of the book provides advice for “training” your attention overall, so that you are less susceptible to surrendering it, in any situation. The result is a book that will empower you to combat each one of these common syndromes—and clear a path for you to achieve your highest personal and professional goals.
Download or read book Attention Management written by Maura Thomas and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-09-09 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed and scattered? Do you wish you could maximize your productivity and achieve success effortlessly? In Attention Management, productivity expert Maura Thomas unveils the ultimate guide to increasing your focus and harnessing your attention for peak performance. In this game-changing book, Thomas shares her practical mindfulness techniques to help you regain control over your attention and optimize your productivity. With a clear and systematic approach, she empowers you to effectively prioritize tasks, eliminate distractions, and enhance your ability to concentrate on what truly matters. Whether you're a student, professional, or entrepreneur, this book will equip you with the tools and knowledge to: Conquer information overload and regain mental clarity Cultivate laser-like focus amidst digital distractions Overcome procrastination and stay motivated Reduce stress and increase overall well-being Cultivate a healthy work-life balance Boost creativity and unlock your full potential A must-read business book for anyone seeking to transform their productivity and achieve lasting success!
