Connectedness, and the art of distraction

There’s an interesting piece of the New York Times website about the apparent drop in support for reading on tablet devices, in favour of traditional books and dedicated eReaders — the argument is that, with their connectivity options, and ability to run other apps, when one attempts to read on a tablet, it is too easy to be distracted.

I can relate to this very much — when I started using the iPad as an eReader, I often found myself distracted. It’s just too easy to switch to checking my email or browsing the web. The solution for me is to keep Wi-Fi switched off on my iPad unless I need it on; generally, this is just for synchronising reading material or marked up documents to or from the device, and then it gets switched off again.

With Wi-Fi off, I can read in peace, and gradually rebuild the concentration which I used to have, but which seems to have been obliterated by over-connectedness. Whereas a year and a half ago, when I started using the iPad, I was struggling to read for more than 10 minutes or so without being distracted, now I regularly read for an hour or so — and, sad to say, perhaps, it feels good!

I spend far more time working with Wi-Fi off and applications running in full screen mode on my Mac, as it reduces the likelihood of me being distracted. I never thought “connectedness” would be a bad thing, but I’m really starting to think that we’re going the wrong way overall — that we should be promoting “connected when you want it” over “always connected,” and helping rediscover the time for distraction-less reading and thinking.

Perhaps not telecoms policy in the traditional sense, but certainly something which has been taking up my research time for some months now — whether the current approach to communications needs to be re-adjusted, to ensure that we are a connectable society, rather than a merely connected one.