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Continuous partial attention is a phenomenon where people focus on one thing while receiving input from other sources. It’s caused by the fear of missing out and is prevalent among 18-25-year-olds. Some view it positively, while others see it as contributing to stress and reduced efficiency. Companies are starting to take measures to avoid it during meetings.
The concept of continuous partial attention was coined by a researcher named Linda Stone, who started working on the idea while working for Microsoft. She noticed that many people in the tech industry tended to work with a split focus, focusing on one high-level element while also receiving partial input from a variety of other sources. It is different from multitasking, where people perform multiple tasks at the same time.
You can probably think of a few examples of continued partial attention in your life. For example, you may have noticed that social events are often interrupted by ringing cell phones, incoming text messages, or incoming emails on mobile devices. Some people find this offensive, getting irritated when people interrupt a conversation to answer a cell phone or attend to a text, while others don’t seem to mind, especially among younger people.
According to Stone, the cause of continued partial attention is the desire not to miss anything. At a party, for example, someone may scan the crowd to make sure they aren’t missing someone they want to see, just like an executive at a meeting checks email to see if there’s a better deal on a product under discussion, or while teenagers text each other in class. Some people feel that this type of attention is simply the modernized form of not paying attention at all, with people focusing on too many things at once to do anything justice.
Stone noted that 18-25 year olds seemed to be champions of continued partial attention, perhaps because they grew up in an environment and culture where it is not only encouraged but expected. He also gave numerous examples from the corporate world, where some companies now tamper with communication devices at the door during meetings to avoid the problem of partial attention.
Some people view continued partial attention as a positive, arguing that it increases flow and allows people to work more effectively. Others find it less positive, contributing to high-intensity, stressful lifestyles that can lead to health problems, as stress has been linked to a range of health problems, from weight gain to dandruff. It can also make workers less efficient or reduce the quality of someone’s work, depending on their work pattern. Critics who see divided attention as a problem have also coined another term, “continuous partial friendships,” to describe the kind of relationships some people have with each other in the era of continuous partial attention.
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