Today's technological inventions offer rapid-fire virtual relations and instant access to reams of data. But the costs of such advances are mounting. In Distracted, Maggie Jackson examines the rise of an attention-deficient modern culture, marked by split-focus, social diffusion, frenetic movement and superficial thinking. Among other subjects, she explores the cultural history, anatomy, psychology, and plasticity of attention, and relates the remarkable new neuroscientific discoveries related to this crucial human faculty.
Ms. Jackson moderated the Library's April 2008 panel on the future of the book in a digital age. Her new lecture also will address and develop some of the important questions raised in the spring.
