On top of this, people may be working to make a living in the same building. If you miss out on something, it might mean your days food planning has gone down the drain. Street vendors pass by the house and shout what they’re selling. People call all the time, because, well, there is no other way of communication. The washing has to be done, by hand, while keeping an eye on everything else. There is no timer on the cooker, so you need to watch the food. The manual nature of all the tasks means you have to watch everything. Kids are the most distracting thing there is and when you have three of even four in the house it is both impossible to focus on one thing, and stressful, because the consequences of not keeping an eye on your kids can be frightening even to think about. If you think twitter is an attention magnet, try living with an infant. By the lights of the ‘driven to digital distraction’ argument, the residents should be able to live blissfully focused distraction-free lives, but they don’t.

In these barrios, computers, the internet, and even washing machines and telephones don’t exist in the average home. In some of the poorer neighbourhoods Medell√≠n, my current city of residence, there is no electricity. The trouble is, it’s plainly rubbish, and you just have to spend time with some low tech communities to see this is the case. It’s based on the idea that before digital communication technology came along, people spent their time focusing on single tasks for hours on end and were rarely distracted. The ‘modern technology is hurting our brain’ argument is widespread but it seems so short-sighted.

The trouble is, I just don’t buy it and it’s easy to see why. Wired has an interview with author Maggie Jackson who’s recently written a book called ‘Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age’ in which she argues modern life and digital technology constantly demand our attention and are consequently damaging our ability to concentrate and be creative.

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