Simultaneous Time

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Definition

We’re spending more and more of our time in what Linda Stone calls “Continuous Partial Attention”, or “Presence Lite”. The idea of one’s presence being “sort of” there in many places, instead of completely there in one place. This could also be called simultaneous time.

Each browser tab has it's own time attached. The time of an SMS has it's own scale, vs. the time of reality. Games like Farmville have their own time. If one has 20 browser tabs open and is SMS'ing and sending text messages, and then switches back and forth between all of these things, then that person is only living in pieces of that reality at a time.

Side Effects

Simultaneous time results in continuous partial attention. It also causes social punctuation, as technosocial connectivity seeps into every part of social relations. The brain thinking differently when it has no inputs. When the mind is robbed of those moments of reflection (those abilities to compress like memories into like memories), then it loses the ability to free up space for other thoughts. This reduces one's ability to think, and as a result the brian as operating system suffers (the brain's ability to upgrade decreases). There is mental fragmentation. Not all of the thoughts one has in the brain are stored next to each other anymore.