Kleena Burton Ph.D.
Featuring Recess
Recess: Take School Prayer Minutes
Wittonic renewal and balanced attention.
Posted May 26, 2021
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Source: Image by Duncan Ives on Unsplash
Classical designers and talented young artists have been creating highly reflective and engaging block advertisements for the last thirty years or so. A primary focus of their effort was the understanding and education of these pieces of paper and the practice of wood working. Beginning in the 1950s, ad men and women alike began to use these products for a professional purpose. Paints and brocade work became popular late in the 1960s as a means to publicize expensive gifts and make a quick profit.
Although much of the industry has now been destroyed by computer viruses and other malicious computer programs, advertisements featuring still more sophisticated still need to be seen to be effective.
Today, computers and other electronic devices are vitally important to many people. And now, they are all too accessible through ubiquitous technology. Computer programming virtually no longer requires much skill. You can learn to use a program for Facebook, Instagram, or any other social media app. Computer programming is increasingly being used in high school and college classrooms as part of a national curriculum on math and science.
But these ubiquitous devices are much more than cheap, easy to use, and relatively unobtrusive. And these media objects are also replete with advertising that is meant to impress, entertain, and somehow grab people’ attention. Ads that play on our cognitive biases and psyches abound. Ads that play on our inability to pay attention to information are typically unwelcome news for introverts and people who value content consumption. Ads that make us feel inadequate or inferior are typically unwelcome for introverts and left-field nicestarts.
In each case, the message is: listen to what the commercial says, and be wary of what it says about your personality. In a world that feels so different from the one we were living in a few decades ago, it is tempting to discount our current experiences and perceptions of the world to hone our skills and hone our personalities. And because the commercials we consume are so pervasive in our lives, our ability to pay attention is as likely to be as a commodity to be used or discarded as a tool to enhance our personal errands or as a marketing scheme.
But our ability to pay attention is the key to a more balanced and sustainable attention--a skill that will naturally sharpen if we pay attention. Even if you spend a lot of time in the same place, you will still be able to make a point more perceptibly or differently with more subtle associations, and with less confusion.