When I learned that we were going to have to read a book on focusing throughout this course, I was utterly confused.  The book in question is Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again, by Johann Hari.  I could see the reasoning, if I really looked for it, but what did that have to do with Interactive Media and Communications (ICM)?  Little did I know that it would apply more than I thought it would…

I started by telling myself I would read a chapter a day.  Once I got through the introduction and towards the end of the first chapter, I thought I could read this whole book in one sitting.  While the chapters are not very long, they are packed with so much thought-provoking information it feels as if hundreds of pages have been read by the time you finish one.  The book itself is only a little under three-hundred pages. 

So, why was I limiting myself to only a chapter a day?  Yes, I had classes to attend and other homework to do, but this book captivated me.  It drew my focus.  I could see myself and others I know in this book, doing the things Hari is specifically telling us not to.

Society has been crumbling for a long time, breaking into “…smaller, disconnected fragments” (Hari 4).  However, we don’t realize it until someone is blatantly shouting it in our faces.  And once we do realize that there is a problem, there is little we think we can do to fix it.  But in reality, there is so much people can do to remedy this problem.  The main one, I think, is to tell more people about it.  I’m not saying walk up to a stranger and say “Hey, have you heard about society’s overall decline on focusing and attention span?”, but bring it up in conversation with friends and family.

After reading only three chapters, so far, I know why this book relates to this course.  While it doesn’t relate to ICM, it relates to the mindset we have to have throughout this course.  Graduate level courses require a level of deeper thinking that many other activities don’t.  By reading this book, we are gaining insights on how to achieve more advanced processing that will allow us to be more successful throughout this journey.