In a recent conversation, an older woman spoke of how she really enjoys items like her new iPad, but the ease at which it brings information to her attention has caused a kind of running-over of her cup of attention. And while she’d been in a career where she had to manage several types of data and attention streams (a few decades as an administrative assistant), the amount of attention that’s required (or built into) the various media channels and devices around her are overwhelming. So much so that its not any more a question of learning how to use a technology, but how does one build-into themselves or their communities the skills to manage the noise.

A similar sentiment is taken in a recent post at the New Media Project at Union Seminary’s blog. Dr. Byassee’s piece, Lament of Attention, describes some of what this very present issue looks like:

…And yet I want to maintain something of a lament for this shift. (I say this as I work on the New Media Project, preparing this for a blog on a laptop, while surfing websites that may help as links, and preparing for a sermon tomorrow that will be accompanied with visual images downloaded from the web and splashed on screen. Alexander the Great would be impressed…) One clear victim of this shift is a certain habit of paying attention: an ability to read forward rather than in all directions, to attend to a line of reasoning or story or argument, to engage that line of thinking, disagree, make connections with other works, etc. This shift in attention has been detailed in many places (see The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age & The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains). Others disagree. But my interest is more properly religious. We read biblical texts and prayer books with a habit of attention that focuses on God. This is a hard-earned practice. In every age people become distracted—monks in ancient monasteries were no different. But they fought against the sin of inattention, and with a little grace, they could win this combat. Now we are not even trying…

So then, what is to be made of this acquisition and approach to a technological lifestyle that begs of us its attention, but our spirit and health demand otherwise? Or, to quote the signature that I’ve had for years at the Brighthand forums, “if your smartphone is so smart, then why are you spending so much time learning it? Shouldn’t it learn you and adapt to your leanings?” Yes, part of that is about learning the technology, and programming it to respond to us accordingly – yet, another part of that is taking account of our own lives and making that time to meditate, contemplate, regard, and retool.

As I write this, I’m reminded of something that I wrote in response to a question about the Sabbath over at Holy Culture Radio’s forums:

…It is in that rest from their “work to make a living” that they were to begin to re-realize the provision that God had always granted to them – even mores because they were His people set aside for His grand design to reconcile all men back to Him. Hard to be a point of reconcilation of an all-providing God when you are breaking your neck just to have enough to put food on the table. The observation of the Sabbath therefore had a dual role. Not only were they getting a rest from “making a living” but also a rest from the deblitating effects of the curse (remember, “cursed be the land… you will have to work it to eat…”)…

…Psychologists will also tell you that to drive yourself (“work”) for more than six days at a time will mentally wipe you out. Observing God’s initial example of resting from His work to enjoy what He created (what He “worked” if you will) allows your spirit, mind, and body to recover and restore itself…

When I wrote that, I was thinking specifically about the times that we should take to consider that God’s provision for us in all matters has to be considered. Our provision in this context can be considered an over-abundance of information. Somehow, in the midst of some working the land, we’ve got to take time to consider our steps (Joshua 1:8, Proverbs 3:5-6), and that means the activity we instigate of taking ourselves from those streams and putting ourselves elsewhere – usually in shut-off place. When we do this, we allow for our minds, hearts, and bodies to receive a kind of provision that just isn’t able to be met in the opulence of attention.

Maybe, this attempt to address the increase and impression of attention in our lives has to sit in a similar vein as humbleness – humbling ourselves under the observed and soverign hand of God, looking forward to not us finding that thing to be noticed, but that he would open us up to those opportunities that present themselves as He wwills (1 Peter 5:6).

PS: looking at the picture chosen for this piece, its almost too ironic the caption to it.