SF-1188 Attention in the Age of Distraction
Attention is a finite resource. The relative scarcity of your attention means, among other things, that it is incredibly valuable to others. The competition is startling in its intensity: there are as many claims to your attention as there are people in your life. Family and friends who love you want to maintain a relationship with you, while professors and spiritual leaders want to help shape you into a better version of yourself. Others, like upstanding politicians, need to explain your role in a wider community of citizens, and still others, like disreputable politicians, need to motivate you enough to grant them power and prestige. Then there are the multinational corporations and media conglomerates who collectively spend billions of dollars on advertising to hold your attention long enough that you might be inspired to hand over your credit card in exchange for a product that will further distract your attention from the meaningful stuff of life on this planet. This course endeavors to explore this fight for your attention. We will seek to better understand the psychological, philosophical, political, and cultural value of attention. In exploring the topic of attention, we will also ask about the role and function of distraction and boredom. We will work from the premise that how you choose to focus your attention has a profound impact on your life: it reaches every corner of your existence from your leisure time and education to your professional and political life. That which captures and holds your attention, in part, dictates your very sense of self.