- Katherine Hayles’s essay ‘Hyper and Deep attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes’ emphasizes the power that 21st media has. With this apparent shift from Deep Attention to Hyper Attention her essay made me think about the cost of this new form of media consumption, though supposedly more ‘painful’ surely reading a classic novel bears more significance and meaning than a continuous yet gripping bombardment of flashes, beeps and constantly changing screens. Though I’m being dramatic and probably a bit too opinionated, my frustration is warranted, I have picked up ‘100 years of Solitude’ about 100 times, yet I’m only up to page 40, my mind seemingly unable to focus on the ‘blandness’ of ink on paper, regardless of how much I actually want to read the book.
If this is a problem for myself currently, It will certainly be a problem for students in the future, no doubt a hybrid type of education needs to be introduced in order to preserve and potentially strengthen the necessity of Deep Attention but too also provide quick, fun and easy learning through hyper attention- Potentially each class could start with an educational ‘games’ section followed by a more straight forward lecture or reading task.
We ended the first lectorial of Media 1 by watching a clip called ‘Mistaken for Strangers’ which presented Tom Berninger, the metal loving, amateur horror movie making brother of The Nationals lead singer Matt Berninger. This clip had a nostalgic, sombre tone throughout it and for no reason in particular it made me feel sorry for Tom and empathise with the apparent normality of his character (disclaimer: I have only seen the first five minutes of this film). This ties in too what I want to get from ‘Media 1’ I want to be able to produce honest, raw forms of Media designed to promote empathy and create unexpected connections between the audience and what there consuming.