15 maio 2025
Es muss sein: ler
13 maio 2025
Es muss sein: ler
GABRIEL: No, no, he’s not saying it’s an actual myth. He’s just questioning this common usage of “attention span.” Or really this idea of a shortening attention span.
CASEY: So he doesn’t think that this is happening? You’re constantly talking about how no one can finish a book anymore.
GABRIEL: Yes, that’s exactly the point. I’m bookish. We’re both bookish. So what he’s saying is that when we talk about “attention,” we’re biased toward reading. Like, I had this professor who used to go on and on about the idiocy of video games. He talked about how his son would play for hours and that he once tried playing with him, but found it completely dull after just a few minutes. Now, if this was reversed, if the son was talking about how his dad would read for hours and he once tried reading with him, but found it boring after a few minutes, well, he would accuse the son of having a short attention span, right? But why don’t we accuse the professor of having a short attention span?
CASEY: Because it’s not about attention for him. It just seems idiotic.
GABRIEL: But what if that’s exactly the case for the son? See, what he’s saying is that this boy is actually able to give hours of attention to a video game because it’s interesting to him.
CASEY: Yeah, but that’s because video games are designed for people with short attention spans.
GABRIEL: Yeah, see, that’s what bookish people say. But no, what this guy is saying is it’s not a matter of attention, but of interest. The professor doesn’t have patience for the video game because he’s not interested in that kind of experience. In the same way that the son might not be interested in books, and it’s not that he doesn’t have the ability to pay attention, clearly he does. Like the professor, he’s able to pay attention for hours if he finds something interesting.
CASEY: So, down with books, long live video games?
GABRIEL: No, not at all. What he’s offering is a critique of a critique. But in its place, he identifies a different kind of crisis. Not the crisis of attention, but the crisis of interest. See, to talk about attention is its own kind of distraction. Kids pay attention to things that interest them. The real question is what interests them? Or us? Are we losing interest in things that matter? Words on a page, for instance. Yeah, see, maybe that’s not so important. What about everyday life? Are we losing interest in everyday life?
in Columbus, Kogonada, 2017