Distributed Attention. A Media History of Distraction

在实际的辩论中，现代大众媒体的接受几乎在不知不觉中被污名为分心。同时，引导注意力的策略也能获得更多的兴趣。相反，分心通常被理解为注意力或注意力集中的反义词。然而，这本书揭示，早在1800年左右，分心就被认为是分散注意力的，并被推广为一种重要的感知技术。在几个主题之间分配注意力是一种自我的技术，它能够预测将发生的事情，并可以进行练习。此外，相对于令人精疲力竭的劳动，分心已经成为一种放松和消遣的必需品。因此，一部分心的传媒史结束了传媒论和现代性理论中的一个迫切需要。

In actual debates the reception of modern mass media is, almost unconsciously, stigmatized as distraction. At the same time strategies of steering one’s attention achieve much interest. In contrast, distraction is mostly understood as the opposite of attention or concentration. However, this book reveals that, as soon as around 1800, distraction was regarded as distributed attention and promoted as an important technique of perception. The distribution of attention between several subject matters is a technology of the self that enables anticipation of what will happen and that can be exercised. Furthermore, distraction has become, in relation to exhausting labour, a necessity as relaxation and diversion. Thus, a media history of distraction closes a severe desideratum within media theory and theory of modernity.