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A young girl called Mal lives in a magical hidden world of mythical creatures. She can fly – sometimes – because she has a special coat - and she finds a helpful companion in a boy called Christopher, from the human world. Together they set out to save her land called the Archipelago. The creator of these characters and the ‘impossible creatures’ who accompany them is Katherine Rundell, who commented on this programme yesterday on the Literacy Trust’s findings that reading for pleasure amongst under 18s is at its lowest since records began.
She described what she thought was a ‘crisis of attention’. And with a particularly strong comment about social media – that your child’s attention is being mined for billions of pounds worth of profit.
This ‘crisis of attention’ shows up in the assumption that the only and best way to communicate is in ever shorter forms– and not just on social media. Attentiveness and concentration are becoming rare skills which take practice, which we are not always willing or able to commit to. The formation of habits of attentiveness, in this case with reference to reading, is diminishing at an alarming rate.
Christian spiritual practice includes a variety of such habits, including learning to be in silence, trying to face honestly the deepest movements of our soul, and a commitment to attend to the ultimate presence of God in the world. Christian communities learned that when people were able to read sacred texts in their own language, and were no longer dependent on the hierarchy to tell them what they said, a more diverse and wiser community-building was possible.
The crisis of attention we’re in mistakes the ‘short’ for the ‘simple’ – which we crave in a complex and over-loaded information landscape. Our craving drives our desire to ‘get it done’, and destroys our patience along the way.
The evidence that we’re losing our ability to concentrate isn’t something that just affects individuals and our enjoyment of stories. Our deeper empowerment is at stake. If we the people are not able to read and absorb more complex writing, we’re more likely to be taken for a ride by the few who can. Nurturing our attentiveness to the slower, deeper themes of life, will help us know the difference between information and wisdom, between catchphrases and reflective decision making. And most profoundly, will help us handle that most essential of human characteristics – the ability to deal with contradiction and paradox.
The crisis of attention is serious – because if all we can cope with is short slogans, then we the people will get the religious – and political – leaders we deserve.