to share a very personal conviction of
mind and let me build this off by
sharing a small story with you and this
story will reveal two important things
first that that we human beings have
failed to take the advantage of the
advancement of technology we have which
we think we have by the way and second
the more important thing is the reason
behind this wrong perception is us so
when the story goes like this I was
traveling to an airport and I was
standing in this fisting q where I was
about to give my laptop in this laptop
tray for checking i saw this
advertisement some genius mind had
thought that up that a person standing
in a fist eq about to give his laptop
was checking is a captive audience to
something which i want to sell now
friends this may sound very natural and
convenient to us because we are used to
getting information given to us and we
assume it to be a bigger part of the
whole communication strategy but friends
this was beyond that this was not just a
part of the communication strategy
because i started seeing things like
this very regularly right from the
airport speed computers Stephen swiping
machines the moment I swipe my card and
punching my pin in that millisecond in
that small screen I started seeing
advertisements friends we are living in
capital capital sick society communism
has failed us and whatever human
development which we have done it’s
because of the capitalism but with 100
advantages comes one deciding
disadvantage and this in this case the
whole new frontier of capitalist has
been opened up and the main point of
this frontier is just to monetize every
bit of your head space they are trying
to monetize right from your presence to
your absence right from your presence to
the silence also mind your friends to
silence can be commoditized the reason
the reason you pay those extra bucks in
the biz
Tanja’s on the airport is not to get
those extra facilities it’s just to get
away from the chaos of the airport see
here silence is getting monetized
friends continue my story after the
fisting tube I was standing on the
handrail and escalator they are saris
handrail and the interesting part is at
the beginning of this handrail there was
a scribe written it wrote you are in
charge so friend might the interesting
point over here is the main point of
these advertisements is not just to give
you information the things things Co
interesting when the the interesting
part comes when it goes just from
providing information to eliciting
reactions to controlling you a human
behavior and this is where things get
dangerous when things things get started
to control when human emotions are
getting controlled and friends the
reason if you analyze closely both these
two instance there is one thing that
lies under underneath all the two
important aspect of these two incidents
that is the importance of attention
friends we are living in the age of are
taking crisis where everything our
attention is getting diverted where
everybody is trying to distract us this
is the age of attention crisis we are
living in and I am here to speak about
this era of disturbance we are living in
and how we as a human being are very
vulnerable to this loud cause of
attention and we respond this our fault
because we are responding very weakly
both mentally as well as physically to
this loud cause of attention and at the
end of this talk will see that how we
can actually survive in this age of
distraction so friends attention
attention Asia is at the pivot of pivot
of human evolution feel that we human
beings are the most superior race on
this planet and attention is at the
epicenter of all this if you see the
word attention it comes from the Latin
root called tense tense means to extend
to something stretch for example if I am
interested in this laptop I am extending
my personality to this laptop this is
attention and friends if you analyze
closely attention attention has paid a
very impor
control so let me explain you by going
back the ages so when human human human
evolution was there there were three
important revolution that happened first
was cognitive revolution second was
agriculture and thorough scientific
revolution among them in cognitive
revolution there are two kind of races
that coexisted one was Homo sapiens and
other was neon tetras and Friends V
human beings right now are the
evolutionary product of Homo sapiens
while leann that else they are extinct
there must be some reason why they are
extinct let me tell you that Homo
sapiens believed in three important
aspects first was understanding of forms
second understanding of behavior at
third understanding of dialogues and for
all these understanding attention is the
most important thing if I’m not being
addition to what someone is speaking or
someone is behaving I won’t able to
decipher what it is well on the other
hand me and that has perceptual and
cognitive ability declined because they
misunderstood all these three things and
while they fired they fought with each
other they kill each other and that is
why they’re extinct right now and we
human beings are the aleutian product of
Homo sapiens and we are the most
superior race on this planet but friends
have we really done justice to what this
importance of attention is so let me
share you one survey done by Microsoft
they did a survey into year two thousand
where they way they check the attention
span of human beings and it was hovering
around 12 seconds when you say 12
seconds means I can concentrate on
something with hundred percent
attendance attention and without with a
hundred percent recall memory they did
the same server year 2014 13 14 our
attention span decreased from 12 seconds
to a staggering eight seconds just to
give you a perspective friends the
addition span of a goldfish is at nine
seconds just pause the spas and think
for a second I mean really goldfish are
we comparing except to that so we are
really going down there and Frank one of
more important aspect of as human beings
are we need to see things at a very
personal level understanding we are not
seeing things at a very person level and
give is available we won’t start acting
on it let me share your personal
incident this is my laptop screen I was
trying to get in article and today the
webpage is built in such a way that
instead of being full of information it
is full of distraction now it’s time to
read an article and there were multiple
hyperlinks in that article and be human
beings being being a curious race I
clicked on it hyperlink to know
something about that it took me to
another web page I kept on that
hyperlink also and took me the third
webpage so after five minutes instead of
reading that article I was checking
India zing and match score so this is
the age of attention crisis we are
living in and friends the danger is not
clicking in the hyperlink mind you it is
not the problem the problem lies you are
not coming back to read the article
again this is where the problem lies
this is where we are living in age of
crisis this is a situation of crisis we
are we are diverted from everything and
friends for us human beings we need to
understand the side effects of not
paying attention the side effects of
being a noisy environment the side
effects of being distracted from
everything so let me share you share
something that you can all relate to the
defense we are all surrounded by
technology we have all we all have cell
phones so have you ever happened to you
that you have a cell phone in your
pocket and it’s arranging you feel a
tingling it’s vibrating there is a
message there is a tone but then you
take out there is nothing there is a
scientific term for it it is called a
ring xiety it’s a combination of ring
plus anxiety since scientists had termed
it as phantom vibration syndrome and
syndrome is something which we relate to
disease so what happens why that anxiety
part was it anxiety part comes let me
tell you that so so when you were when
were we are in primitive ages we used to
use to live for only one thing survival
we used to survive from all the
Predators which we have and to survive
we use
depend on the surroundings user
dependent noses that comes from the
surrounding whenever the Rosen might do
our mind urbane get attentive and will
start responding to the noise responding
to in which way by doing three things
one flight fight or freeze and for both
fighting and fighting we require energy
so whenever we heard any earlier for
example we hear the rustling of the
release from the bushes so our mind get
certainty oh there was five
physiological reactions that happen to
us in that case there was hormone
release that hormone is called cortisol
hormone friends this hormone is
responsible disposable for the ethylene
pump which we have right now that this
this hormone is responsible for that and
be required at hormone because we were
fighting and we were fighting but
friends physically we have evolved but
there is still a small part in our brain
that belongs to that predatory brain at
Blancos primitive ages so whenever we
hear now is right now also even if I am
concentrating on something but hear any
noise there my conscious mind does not
attend to that noise noise but my shop
subconscious point is still there it
still that noise still get registered
into our brain still that cortisol
releases but now friends we are not
fighting another way of fighting so what
happens we’re sitting right there so at
then we pump is there and ask her hand
starts getting sweaty I people start
getting dilated friends the hormones on
talking about cortisol hormone it is
called a stress hormone right so it is
increasing the level of stress in your
body and that so if you analyze people
living in a very noisy environment
they’re very high level of stress so
this is the situation and and one more
thing that whatever we have seen right
now are the physical evidences of
distraction and as I stated earlier that
things go interesting when we cross the
physical barrier when the definition of
external object when the definition of
commodity changes from physical to
invisible taint changes from tangible to
intangible let me give an example of two
intangible distractions in our life so
if you are supposed to ride a bus in
South Korea
you are passing by a dunkin donut shop
so there they spray the smell of dunkin
donut and coffee right into the
ventilator of the bus friends you can
forget you can forget physical
perceptions you can forget visual but
you cannot forget smell even if you
don’t notice that there is dunkin donut
shop they will pay the jingle of monkey
island in the background even if you
don’t recognize a junk in donut the
driver and the conductor will tell you
and look at that side this is uncle
donut shop if you are supposed to walk a
mall in us they are they play a kind of
music that you won’t be able to view it
because it is faded such a frequency but
it get registered into your brain and
this music contains words like burgers
french fries mcdonald’s company’s name
and the moment the moment you reach the
food code the fourth store it start
reacting into brain you start feeling
hungry you starting the urge of buying
these things this is the level of
control they’re exerting and this is
where things get interesting when and
why this fuss about attention why this
is this is this all day all the private
players are behind this because
attention is a very scarce resource we
have this much and we can use only this
much and this is why the importance of
attention Rises the sketches the
resources it’s important rises for
example oil and gold or once one of the
most scarce resource and that is why it
was the economy was built upon that
today the arai the rise of data the
company of the country which is having
more data is valued more you are not
valued by the amount of acid which you
have but you are wired by the amount of
data which you have after five to ten
years it will be attention at its core
attention economy will creep in where
everybody will be under attention so
since if attention is a scarce resource
there is one resource that is unlimited
and that resource is human potential the
human beings have always come across
every crisis which you have faced and I
am damn sure that we will be going with
this
also I recall a quote from Thomas Edison
that if we start doing things if human
beings start doing things that we are
capable of we will be astounding
ourselves every second and when I am
sure that will come out of the situation
by doing very basic things like mentally
very basic thing so one of the most
basic thing is self-regulation that’s it
Keith thinks those who are distracting
you away from you keep your cell phones
away it make noises so keep yourself for
me this is a this is a small
self-regulation habit which you need to
develop but friends as attentions are
scarce resource so is the
self-regulation concept you have this
much and it can teach you to this much
only so to form a focus and attention
building habit you need to start using
your five senses just take back a second
and I’ll ask you a question when was the
last time you build something material
using a five five senses just think it’s
quite a tough it’s quite a long time
start doing that involve audio five
senses hand years know everything smell
everything that if if you build
something material there is a sense of
ownership there is a sense of authority
that creeps into your body and this kind
of reactions will elicit are more focus
and attention oriented physiological
reactions in your body and this increase
your focus and attention start learning
new music start learning a new foreign
language if you start doing that there
are new neural networks that that forms
into your brain they’re new in citation
of new neurons will be then into brain
and this new insight in citation will
subside the pedal bin which we used to
follow the primitive brain and this is
where our attention span increases and
this is where all of Berlin ability to
distraction increases and we will start
being more focused word things and
printed i’ll end up with an anecdote
from Andrew Carnegie’s life he is famous
for his rags-to-riches story it was one
of the most wealthiest man this planet
so the government thought that he had
made some illegal measures to come to
this to this position so the coiling of
an asked him why how did you do that and
he he told one thing that I can
concentrate on one thing for five
minutes without getting distracted
this was his reason friends attention
can do wonders to your life i am telling
you it can Billy do wonders to your life
stop getting distracted start
self-regulating and I am sure in this
era of age of distraction will not only
survive but we’ll try Thank You Ven tanjo paying attention so much