4 Questions for Your Attention

So much information, so little time.

We’re saturated with information today. How do we take it all in? What do we do with it?

On the heels of our nation’s birthday, how does all this information affect what kind of citizens we will be? As believers, just what should be our attitude toward knowledge?

Attention, Knowledge, and Citizenship

Megan Garber of The Atlantic quotes Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia Law School and the author of the book The Attention Merchants, as saying, “Frankly, citizenship in our time is about how you spend your attention.” 

The media landscape today vies for our attention, but much of it is pure distraction. Garber makes the point that we’re used to considering citizenship as an action – vote, rally, protest; that it is, but today, she writes, Wu reminds us that citizenship is more:

“Now, Wu suggests, there’s an even more basic requirement of good citizenship: to be strategic about the things on which we agree to expend that most precious of resources—our attention. Yes, protest; yes, make phone calls; yes, march; yes, of course, vote; that will be far less meaningful, however, unless it is undergirded by those even more foundational activities: learning. Looking. Seeing. Prioritizing. Distinguishing between that which is urgent, and that which is the opposite. Thinking, always—even when the “news” of the day is nonsense, and indeed especially when it is that—of what is truly worthy of being talked about and cared about. And what, given the severe limitations of the American attention span, is not.

Thinking, always, of what is truly worthy of being talked about and cared about and especially what is not.  A clear call for media literacy and digital citizenship, I’d say.

Is a posture of learning a posture of worship?

I ran across a meme that said, “A posture of learning is a posture of worship.” It certainly can be; the question is, What are we worshiping? What are we spending our time on?

How should we pursue knowledge?

John Milton spoke to this very conundrum in 1667 in Paradise Lost. The angel, Raphael, was sent to enlighten Adam “as friend with friend”:

“But Knowledge is as food, and needs no less

Her temperance over appetite to know

In measure what the mind may well contain,

Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns

Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind” (VII.125-130).

We have an appetite for knowledge just as we do for food. We must exercise “temperance over appetite” – considering how much to take in. If we sate ourselves with surfeit – that is, if we gorge with excess – wisdom will turn to folly just as nourishment results in nothing but “wind.”

Just what knowledge should we pursue? Milton writes that the angel Raphael will give Adam the knowledge that “best may serve to glorify the Maker” (VII.115-116).

So, about those 4 questions. Consider these.

How do we spend our attention?

Do we spend time thinking of what is truly worthy of being talked about and what is not?

Do we exercise temperance over our appetite for knowledge?

Do we concern ourselves with what best may glorify the Maker?

Digital Wellness, Applied Digitally

William Wan of The Washington Post  wrote last week, “In the modern economy of tablets and apps, our attention has become the most valuable commodity.”

We scroll, we click, we post, we like – and our behavior exemplifies what B.F. Skinner called “variable rewards.” We keep looking and liking and sometimes, we get what we’re seeking. (Slot machines come to mind…)

Looking for a remedy

Now that we’re finally becoming aware of our behavior and its potential drawbacks, Wan writes, “rebel developers” enter the picture:

“Increasingly, the rebel developers are using fire to fight fire – creating apps that try to put users back in control. They call their movement ‘digital wellness,’ and in recent weeks, they scored two huge victories when Google and Apple announced plans to incorporate some aspects of digital-wellness apps – like allowing users to track their screen time –into upcoming Android and iPhone operating systems.”

Are we Narcissus?

Marshall McLuhan’s book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964, discussed this control issue by comparing us to Narcissus of Greek mythology. A young man of extraordinary beauty, Narcissus one day bent to drink from a pool and saw his own reflection. He immediately fell in love with the image. In some versions of the story, Narcissus tries to embrace his reflection, falls in, and drowns; in another, unable to tear himself away from his reflection, he simply wastes away and dies. Clearly, Narcissus’s obsession with his image led to his death.

Numbed by extensions, we auto-amputate.

Fascinated with the extension of himself, the image, Narcissus became numb to other perceptions and effects. He offloads, or in McLuhan’s terminology, auto-amputates, his feelings and sensations to the image. McLuhan’s contention is that we do the same with technology.

We’ve always used tools, and technology is nothing new. We use a tool such as a pen or pencil to write down a list, offloading the need for memory. Later, as smartphones offer their amazing abilities to us, we further offload by inputting our contacts into their memory.

When I read the headline “Rebel Developers Are Trying to Cure Our Smartphone Addiction – With An App,” I immediately asked what is wrong with this picture.

As we enable our smartphones to regulate our smartphone addiction, I wonder how much more numb we can possibly get.

Engaging a Changing Culture with an Unchanging Message

It appears that Christians have lost what Ed Stetzer refers to as “the Christian’s home court advantage.”

In Stetzer’s post entitled “How We Lead in Times of Cultural Shift,” he names the Christian’s next challenge as a challenge of leadership.

How then shall we lead?

As our culture shifts, how are Christians to lead? Stetzer’s first suggestion is that Christians “stop fighting for the perception of cultural dominance that gives the appearance of success without the substance of Christian practice.”

Can we give up our perception of cultural dominance that gives the appearance of success?

Can we embrace the substance of Christian practice?

We can find a model for both in the New Testament, where Christian cultural dominance is unheard of and Christian practice abounds.

A shift in thinking

Stetzer writes that to accomplish these two things, “Christian leaders need to shift their thinking toward missional and evangelistic ends.”

We must rethink:

Our language. Stetzer’s advice is for Christian leaders to “become bilingual, demonstrating fluency in both the public sphere of secularism and the message of the Gospel of Jesus….speak[ing] prophetically from the margins, remaining faithful to Christian theology and practice while effectively translating the Gospel to the world around us.”

Our approach to American culture. Stetzer’s post details three approaches to culture: culture defenders, culture creators, and culture engagers. All three have a role, but I would agree with Stetzer that culture engagers will matter most.

These are leaders who “interpret culture as a missionary, prophetically speak into the public sphere, and testify to the gospel of Jesus as the true satisfaction for the deepest desires of the human heart.”

Signaling grace

These leaders, I propose, are signaling grace. As they interpret culture, they’re identifying the points at which daily life resonates with the Gospel.

They understand not only what is now but what is within; they speak both into and beyond these, to what will be.

May we be such leaders, engaging a changing culture, signaling grace that’s at the heart of the unchanging message.

Who’s at the wheel?

James Williams’s Sunday essay in The Guardian a few weeks ago begins with an apt metaphor.

“Imagine that you’ve just bought a new GPS device for your car. The first time you use it, it works as expected. However, on the second journey, it takes you to an address a few blocks away from where you had wanted to go. On the third trip, you’re shocked when you find yourself miles away from your intended destination, which is now on the opposite side of town. Frustrated, you decide to return home, but when you enter your address, the GPS gives you a route that would have you driving for hours and ending up in a totally different city.

Like any reasonable person, you would consider this GPS faulty and return it to the store – if not throw it out of your car window. Who would continue to put up with a GPS that they knew would take them somewhere other than where they wanted to go? What reason could anyone possibly have for continuing to tolerate such a thing?

No one would put up with this sort of distraction from a technology that directs them through physical space. Yet…”

Yet that’s what we do each day when we open what Williams calls our “attentional GPSs – those technologies that direct our thoughts, our actions, our lives.” Williams contends – and I heartily agree – that technology should be helping us pursue “real goals, human goals.”

Unfortunately, though…

Unfortunately, though, technology awards our “impulsive selves,” our “lesser selves.” Our hope is that these tools will become “companion systems for our lives,” but as Williams explains, our goals have not been the goals of the technological system. The lingo is telling here; what do we call images today? Screen grabs. Captures. Williams contends that this technological system produces “weak-willed and impulsive” individuals.

What if we want technology to be more?

What if we want technology to be more? Williams contends that our challenge is one of self-regulation. The proliferation of devices and apps in our culture today puts us in a constant state of learning and adaptation,” never so fully in control that [we] can prevent these technologies from operating on [us] in unintended or undesirable ways.”

So, if technology is an “attentional adversary” that complicates the process of reaching our goals, how do we navigate those waters?

We navigate those waters by paying attention.

We can only navigate technological rapids today by truly paying attention. By finding, as Williams writes, “new ways of talking and thinking about the problem, as well as summoning the courage necessary for advancing on it inconvenient and unpopular ways.”

The courage to advance on the problem in inconvenient and unpopular ways.

May I suggest a liturgy that can bolster your resolve? Take a look at A Liturgy Before Consuming Media from Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey.

Consider these thoughts before reading, watching, posting, tweeting.

McKelvey asks in his liturgy

that God be “present in my mind and action in my imagination”…

that God would “use human expressions of celebration and longing as catalysts to draw my mind toward ever deeper insight”…

and that God would grant wisdom and discernment that “make me a more empathetic Christ-bearer.”

A wise liturgy, indeed, that helps focus our attention and hand off the wheel to the One who knows and loves us best, who can direct us toward real goals.

Balcony or Basement: The Way We Speak

I interact with countless people everyday. Students, parents, colleagues, my own children, my husband, the cashier in the grocery store.

And everyday I have a choice to make.

Balcony or basement?

Will my response lift someone up or pull them down?

So many times a day, a look, a smile or frown, or an answer empowers me. I often don’t even realize that what I say and do will affect those around me. Oh, I get the big stuff – the compliment, the insult, the sarcasm.

But the offhand response – or the lack of it – can carry meaning, too. King Solomon wrote, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21).

And all too often, I’m not on the balcony or in the basement, I’m just camping out on the landing. By myself, probably looking in the mirror, thinking about me.

That’s when I let the opportunity to praise someone pass me by.

Take an extra second today and consider your response. Can you give the grumpy cashier a smile or offer to bag those groceries yourself? Can you thank your child for doing what he’s supposed to do? There’s nothing wrong with expressing gratefulness for others’ faithfulness. In fact, as we acknowledge the faithfulness of others and our need of and appreciation for it, we signal grace to those around us.

“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Prov. 6:24).

So join me as I step off the landing. I have a bit of climbing to do.

But I’ll try to season each step with gracious words.