My school report always read “Richard is easily distracted.” I was ahead of my time. 30 years on critics debate whether we’re the distracted generation or the engaged generation! Whichever it is, we know that technology is affecting our attention as we adapt to the new world As a fully signed-up member of the distracted generation, I celebrate my attention (or lack of) by vehemently switching between screens and attempting to handle more than one task at the same time.
But on a Saturday night this all stops for two hours. Sarah Lund demands my attention and she gets it. As the complex characters and plot unravel in the Danish-language crime drama, a wee glance at my Twitter stream and a killer piece of the puzzle slips by in the subtitles. For those few hours I sit mesmerised. I disconnect from my hyper-connected world for 120 minutes. I don’t Tweet. I don’t Facebook. I don’t reply to emails. I don’t even make myself a cup of tea. I just sit back, focus and enjoy.
And do you know something? Everything is just A-OK. The world goes by a few hours and I deal with it. People say stuff, and I’m not the first to hear it . And no-one ran screaming because of my absence from the Socialverse! And when I did come to read the information that had passed, well, it was still relevant & interesting. I didn’t return to a world so different to the one that I left a few hours earlier.
The Killing has taught me that Social Media can survive without me. More importantly I can survive without Social Media. Well, for a few hours at least.
