Maybe you’ve heard about a new game that only daring smartphone owners have the nerve to play. Called by some “The Phone Stacking Game,” the idea is that when you’re out to dinner with friends, everyone takes out their phones, turns them upside down, and stacks them.
Throughout your meal, you’ll hear ringing, beeps, tones, and those other telltale sounds that calls, emails, texts, and other alerts are occurring. So the way the game works is that the first person who breaks down and picks up their phone buys dinner for the entire group.
This is symptomatic of what’s happened to us over just the last two years. We saw it up close and personal in “Goin’ Mobile” as our smartphone owners couldn’t stop themselves from constantly checking their phones while driving and even while telling us they were focused on our interviews.
We are living in an era where the excuse to multitask has led to diminishing attention spans. While we’re trying to do many things at once, we may not be doing any of them well.
So, consider this: what about playing “The Phone Stacking Game” at your next meeting? Set the time parameters – when we’ll do work and when we’ll take a (phone) break, stack up the phones, and get something done.
If anyone breaks the rule (and believe me, I’m one of the worst offenders), that person buys lunch or dinner for the group. Or writes a $100 check to the station’s favorite charity.
It might be a good exercise in restraint.
And we might actually get something done.
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Anybody listening? Think about the audience and mobile phones. That rare personal space between work, family, and friends. What is the audience doing? Not listening. Traffic … there’s an app for that. Weather … easy one touch. Local news item … quick mobile search. Stocks … got it. Am I listening yet? No, Facebook updates. Twitter feed. FourSquare. Location information on my friends … got it. Music? Got my own. Am I listening … err paying attention yet? Maybe what have you got that I don’t already have? Sorry, voice call. Leave me a text. Tuning out … bye.
There’s no question where the attention span has gone. And by the way, looks like you’re buying dinner. Thanks for the comment, Steve.
🙁 I would stay broke.
Oh, me too.
How true…what we now call ‘multitasking’ looks alot like ‘The artist previously known as Dividing Your Attention’
Yup. We went out to dinner last night & tried it. Even with a Pistons and Red Wings game happening, I am pleased to tell you that I exercised great restraint. (Of course, it helped that it was a Friday night and emails and texts were slow-to-none.) It did make for a nice, quiet dinner.