Is Attention a Distraction?
A Conversation with Antón Barba-Kay
12.00-1.30pm | Thursday, February 29
Elm Library, 31 Whitney Avenue
In our digital age it has become common to think of attention as a resource and to worry about its extraction by exploitative tech companies. A variety of countermeasures have sprung up to defend against this exploitation: from cell phone bans in schools, to mindfulness apps, digital detoxes, and all manner of “slow living” movements. But what if these supposed forms of resistance are symptoms of the problem they purport to solve? Is there some way of thinking about our attention that escapes this vicious circle? Or is attention an unhelpful concept for diagnosing our digital afflictions?
Antón Barba-Kay is Robert B. Aird Chair of Humanities at Deep Springs College.
This event is open to all members of the Yale community. Lunch will be served.
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Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.
—José Ortega y Gasset, Man and Crisis