We live in a globalised culture that has made a civilisation of technology that in itself seems to atrophy the muscle of attention simply because of the flood of data, the flood of stimulus, the flood of information that is pouring all around us, into us. We have to know how to deal with that and give children and ourselves some way, some means of preserving our capacity for attention. (…) our heads, our memories are filled with vast amounts of useless information, like telephone answering machines that become full and cannot take any more or the trash bin on your computer that you have to empty. And if that happens, if all the memory available for living becomes occupied with this accumulation of trivia, or unnecessary information, the computer slows down. We slow down our capacity to be involved, engaged, interactive. It slows down. And people cannot communicate with you because there is just so much of a wall between you and them, and the mind is so hyperactive. So we have to learn to clean out these trash cans and we also need to get enough sleep at night where this processing can take place.
( Attention and Love 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
