SENTINEL WATCH August 31, 2009 Issue

DIVIDED ATTENTION OR ORGANIZED THOUGHTS?

Frederick R. Andresen

ACCORDING TO PHYSICAL SCIENCE, fragmentation has been going on for a long time. It's the result of the Big Bang theory of creation, an increasingly contested theory of universal explosion with infinitely dispersed matter of which the earth is but a speck. The concept of defragmentation, however, is relatively new—as, for example, in the world of computers.

In computers, fragmentation occurs when the operating system cannot allocate enough space to store a complete data file as a unit, but instead puts parts of it in gaps between other files. Something similar is happening in human thought today. The increasing information overload and multiplicity of delivery systems pressing upon us, tend to induce fragmentation of thought, leading sometimes to confusion or to decreased performance levels.

This mental fragmentation is found among people of all ages where attention is divided among many sources of digitized communication and often in what is persuasively sold as entertainment. The insistent and tempting voices may not be intentionally harmful, but they can be disorganizing and wasteful if we are not willing or able to prioritize and redirect our thought. We have choices. And we can put all this into helpful and organized action for good.