Why do we need attention management?

We live in a globally inter-connected era where there is a constant social need to know and be informed. Despite being socially intelligent beings and highly superior in nature, the very network that connected us somehow overtook our position and we willingly handed it over.  

The new media age; aka the age of information marked the entry of the IT industrialization and revelation, which further gave way to the upcoming future rise of artificial intelligence. The age of information marked the renaissance period. Humans were blessed with reason and enlightenment while inventions continued to fascinate us into a life of convenience.  

Through all the phases, we undermined a crucial element of cognition that enabled us to create all that we did; attention. By paying attention and concentrating on what improvement and what needed could be changed, we as humans successfully created routines and life for what they are today.  

But what exactly does paying attention mean? Attention can be considered as the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether considered subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. It is a state of cognitive arousal, or when our mind gets tickled by what we understand or create. The very aspect of attention is what has been manipulated and studied in order to influence our behavioral outcomes at present.  

In the fast paced world of social media, algorithms and programs seek to find patterns in our daily behaviors and routines. The more we consider our tech devices to be a part of us, the more they study and understand how your mind works and what you’re more likely to do next.  

In multiple phases of our existence, we have all become a slave to the matter of how attentive we can all be. With everything and everyone constantly competing for our attention, it is important for us to prioritize what deserves it and what doesn’t. Attention can be the very element that pushed you forward In life while guiding you along the right path, as it can also be the reason why you fail to understand situations better.  

Attention is the key, to a future yet to be discovered, and the driving factor for where we are today. Being attentive is what brought us all to where we are today. There are various ways through which we can train to build better attention spans. Through various self-guidance books and attention coaches, it is possible for all of us to strategize and prioritize our lives better.