A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO, MTV left its first, deep footprint on the pop cultural landscape. As straightforward as its initials stood for--Music Television, it revolutionized the way we enjoyed music and lived out our lives. The trailblazing cable channel kicked off at midnight with the music video of "Video Killed the Radio Star." For the next 25 years, MTV not only killed radio stars, but it greatly rocked the world of music, trends, fashion and even filmmaking with the introduction of the very first reality TV show, "The Real World."The images seen on MTV catered to the sensibilities of a youth perennially diagnosed with a short attention span--a condition linked to TV watching at an early age. Thus, the music on MTV was interpreted visually in quick, almost frenetic clips. Within the space of those few minutes, stories were told through pulses of moving pictures. It may have been diagnostic at the start, as it satisfied an age group’s short attention spandwidth, yet it could have eventually played catalyst as if further heightened attention disorder among young people. Lo and behold, this in-your-face, insta-addicted and pop culturally-attuned set was then christened as "the MTV Generation." My handy Wikipedia defines this as “the sub-generation that includes the end of the Generation X (a generation following the post-World War II baby boom) yet importantly includes the elders of Generation Y (a generation considered to follow Generation X from 1975 onwards). The worldwide acknowledgment of an MTV Generation has been proven through the success of MTV and its by-products on a global scale as well as its influence upon youth culture and society throughout the 1990s.” As a dyed in the wool member of this gen, I’d personally define it as being a part of an awareness group complete with some form of a secret handshake: we’d have a visual response in our heads when asked to recall, say, U2’s "Mysterious Ways" video, or complement Blind Melon’s song "No Rain" with an image of a chubby, bespectacled dancing little girl in a bee costume. We wouldn’t flinch if someone connected Madonna to a gondola in Venice. All these images were--are--embedded knowledge taken from another universe running parallel to our own. We related with each other, short attention span mind to fellow short attention span mind, through this language of pulse-like visuals and accompanying sounds. When the MTV Generation grows up Fast track to two and a half decades later. The MTV generation is now skimming their twenties and thirties, and armed with iPods. All grown up and stuff (*sigh!*) What has happened to us? Already conditioned with a short attention span, we find ourselves mesmerized by more than just the flickering images on a TV screen in our daily lives. In the era of email, text messaging and chat, a new generation has evolved: the Google Generation. It’s both highly connected and yet dreadfully disconnected. With the ability to link up instantly with people not physically present, and all over the world, Googlites are live nodes in the virtual universe. And yet because of this plugged-in condition, we are usually not as fully in sync among present company. This condition of "always looking over our shoulders for a better conversation partner" as Newsweek describes, is called "Continuous Partial Attention" or CPA. The term was coined by Linda Stone, the creative thinker from Apple and Microsoft. CPA describes the way we cope with the constant influx of communication coming at us. In an interview, Stone explained, "with continuous partial attention, we’re scanning incoming alerts for the one best thing to seize upon." It is motivated by a desire to connect and be connected to The Great Network, and all we need to do is to choose to plug into it. This is the way of life for the Always-On society, in order to keep up with our daily responsibilities and relationships. Guilty as electro-charged! So then, are we afflicted with Continuous Partial Attention? I raise a guilty hand, while simultaneously cursing that technology has saved me and damaged me. The symptoms are all there. I miss checking emails for a day, and I’ve been cut out from important information that needed to be acted upon, or at least reacted to. I have to leave my laptop online even if I’m watching a DVD in the privacy of my home, in case I get the urge to surf online for the bios of the actors or director of the film, before I get back to regular scheduled viewing. I’m guilty of texting while driving. Hell, I can’t even have cup of coffee or dinner with someone without having to lower my head to respond to the bleeping sound of an incoming text message, or pressing a button to answer a phone call. Same goes for the other party: I’m so used to sporadic alert tones and buzzes coming in on the other mobile, such that I’ve simple adapted with a momentary silence, in order for my companion to focus on that other, non-physically present companion. Instant chats (an activity I can engage in while simultaneously working or even writing this column) are testimonials of this CPA-bordering-on-ADD state. In a single hour, my friend on the other side of the chat window and I can flawlessly jump from topic to topic without even noticing the gaps. We could start out with plans of watching "Pirates of the Caribbean," but that would lead to non-linear routes towards eternal Johnny Depp worship, the Rolling Stones, smoking cigarettes, France, the World Cup, Ronaldinho’s burning effigies, South Africa, the high cost of living, being broke, and having no money then to watch a movie. Why, it’s an MTV all over again! In fact, if one just got corresponding video clips of these seemingly unrelated topics from YouTube.com, and superimpose it with a trippy song, then I could compose my own MTV to relay the story of fractal minds. Shut up, shut off Research states that Continuous Partial Attention, in small doses, can actually be contributory to well-functioning behavior in the 00s, in the effort of filtering information to streamline responsibilities and ease relationships. But if it goes out of hand, meaning being in an always-on, anytime and anywhere state, it sets the person on high alert, and gives an "artificial sense of constant crisis." (I feel the stress already!) The irony drips: we are so connected that we’re disconnected; we are so reachable that we’ve become unreachable. What to do about it? Well, the brave soul must learn the art of shutting off. At least sometimes. Some companies have instituted "no e-mail Fridays" (the modern "casual Friday") in order to revisit the value of interpersonal communication. Some CEOs have even required their employees to disarm themselves of all cell phones (yikes!), laptops, and BlackBerrys, if only to be able to block out The Network, and be able to tune in to the real, living moment. Imagine that, not being a Pavlov’s lapdog to a beep, a ring, a flickering icon on a screen! That means having full, undivided attention! Welcome, Googlite, to the wonderful, surreal state of disconnect. It’s a whole new level of paranoia! |
