Wørd of the week – continuous partial attention
Sunday, April 9th, 2006continuous partial attention n.
A state in which most of one's attention is on a primary task, but where one is also monitoring several background tasks just in case something more important or interesting comes up. Also: CPA.
Example Citation:
One of the most interesting talks came from a former Apple and Microsoft executive named Linda Stone. Her emphasis was less economic than social. It was a plea to consider an epidemic she identified as continuous partial attention (CPA).
She couldn't have picked a more perfect audience. During the presentations, the faces of at least half the crowd were lit with the spooky reflection of the laptops open before them. Those without computers would periodically bow their heads to the palmtop shrine of the BlackBerry. Every speaker was competing with the distractions of e-mail, instant messaging, Web surfing, online bill paying, blogging and an Internet chat "back channel" where conferencees supplied snarky commentary on the speakers. Stone nailed the behaviour so precisely that some audience members actually raised their faces and started listening intently.
—Steven Levy, "(Some) Attention Must Be Paid!," Newsweek, March 27, 2006
