Absence in Presence

The last, and in my opinion most relevant symptom is attention fatigue. This fatigue happens when we give in to the temptation of every distraction that comes across our eyeballs. We are constantly interrupted by Facebook, Twitter, and text message notifications that distracts us from personal conversations and face-to-face interactions. I thought this symptom in particular was very relatable to what we have been learning in class. One reading I thought that really connected to this symptom was the Young and Digital except by Watkins. In this, Watkins argues that all technological gain produces a sense of loss too; for example, the creation of the Internet has led to the loss in social skills for many kids. Watkins also presents the theory of “absence-in-presence” which is the act of being present in body but not in spirit. In my opinion, this “absence-in-presence” is connected to attention fatigue. Because we are always searching for new, relevant information, whether it be on our phones or computers, we are constantly “absent” from the real world, and our attention is constantly losing cognitive energy because we are always distracted.