In every age, one of the great challenges of ministering, is knowing what must be preserved and what should be changed as we respond to a changing world.

In the 21^st century one of the areas that we need wisdom in how to respond, is what Linda Stone calls continuous partial attention. It is a phenomenon that everyone has observed, but should we ignore it, use it or react against it?

What is continuous partial attention?

Linda Stone, who first coined the term continuous partial attention says “in the case of continuous partial attention, we’re motivated by a desire not to miss anything… we feel most alive when we’re connected, plugged in and in the know. We constantly scan for opportunities – activities or people – in any given moment. With every opportunity we ask, “What can I gain here?”

You can see partial attention in action when a person is watching television, while checking Facebook and conversing with you.

Isn’t this a good thing?

Surely partial attention is a good thing. What is the problem with being interested and involved in many things? Isn’t it just the modern version of multi tasking?

Linda Stone says “continuous partial attention and multi-tasking are two different attention strategies, motivated by different impulses. When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient. Each activity has the same priority – we eat lunch AND file papers. We stir the soup AND talk on the phone. With multi-tasking, one or more activities is somewhat automatic, like eating lunch or stirring soup. At the core of multi-tasking is a desire to be more productive. We multi-task to create more opportunity for ourselves – more time to do more and time to relax more.

But continual partial attention never permits downtime. We are always on duty. And unlike multi-tasking it does not allow a prioritising of activities. We are constantly scanning the world and so do not give our focused attention to just one thing.

And the downside?

Linda Stone says that because CPA is always on, it:

“creates an artificial sense of crisis. We are always in high alert. We reach to keep a top priority in focus, while, at the same time, scanning the periphery to see if we are missing other opportunities. If we are, our very fickle attention shifts focus. What’s ringing? Who is it? How many emails? What’s on my list? What time is it in Beijing? In this state of always-on crisis, our adrenalized “fight or flight” mechanism kicks in. This is great when we’re being chased by tigers. But how many of those 500 emails a day is a tiger? How many are flies? Is everything an emergency? Our way of using the current set of technologies would have us believe it is.”

Put together over stimulation and the failure to ever complete the task of knowing all that is happening and we feel powerless. Not surprisingly Stone says that research shows that we may actually be doing tasks more slowly and poorly. She says that is not all that happens. The fight or flight response to associated with CPA sets off body hormones that prevent the take up of hormones that help us feel calm and happy.

Ministry & Partial Attention

So what should we do about this? Ignore, use or react against it?

Expanding our vision, engagement and knowledge of the world is a good thing, but it comes at an expense.

• We need to help each other see that there exists a hierarchy of importance to things. Some things should be focused on, even at the expense of ignoring other things. We need to take time to hear God speak in His Word and respond in prayer in undistracted ways.

• We need to teach one another that relationships matter more than knowing stuff, and so we will focus while we are in relationships. In a similar way we need to urge one another to be active and committed in serving and caring not just comfortable in knowing about what is happening

• We should warn each other of the seduction of CPA that puts me at the centre of the web of what is going on. This thinking is at the heart of sin.

• As God’s family, we should speak about it. Discuss it and reflect together on how it is helpful and how it hinders our Christian walk. We should help each other to think and act appropriately about how we deal with the ‘buzz’ of society.

• We need to work harder at helping each other to experience the excitement of knowing and serving God is greater than the buzz of being at the centre of the web.

• Finally, we must recognise that this phenomena is having an effect on how we listen to the Word of God in churches. But more of that next time.