Obviously I was not driving

Attention

Manoj Manduva
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

I saw a man driving an old black Maruti Suzuki Alto on my way to work. I was going by cab and he caught my attention. While cruising at a decent speed on the flyover he was trying to take a ‘selfie’. I was not surprised but felt miserable at his actions. I was keenly following him and his rest of the actions were much more shocking. He immediately tried posting or sharing the photo on some app ( may be Instagram or Facebook ) all while driving at approximately 50KMPH. He was putting himself and others at risk all this while trying to take a picture, posing, texting and waiting for the photo to upload, confirming and being satiated. It must have taken at least good 20–30 seconds of distracted driving.

Is it a ‘selfie’ that is dangerous here? We hear stories that so many people are at the risk of losing life while trying to take a selfie. In fact, India stands at second position in ‘selfie’ deaths. Obviously people get so much involved in the frame while posing for a selfie that they lose the awareness of the surroundings or unexpected circumstances for which they pay a heavy price of losing life.

However, I felt there is something else is more dangerous here. It is not the act of taking selfie but the intentions of sharing that picture with his audience. The driver was seeking attention of his limited audience, which was much more grave. This quench for others attention is more harmful both physically and psychologically.

In the current book I’m reading called the ‘The Inevitable’, the author quoted that “ Wealth of information creates a poverty of attention. In the world of abundance, the only scarcity is human attention”. Every billboard thats screaming about the new apartments in the city to occupy, every radio ad that is asking us to clap ( I hate the Urban Clap ad by the way ), click, call, tap, every newspaper front page asking us to buy more on Big Sale days are just begging for our attention.

Just like time is limited in day, so is our quantum of attention. We have limited attention for the day. Every colleague we talk with, every piece of information we read, every ad we see, every link we click, every app we open is eating out of this limited attention we got. As of now this attention is priceless. However it can become a commodity with a variable price. Especially if we are entering an undisturbed, un-distracted world of our own virtual reality.

The selfies we take and post now are seeking the attention from our friends ( approximately 0.5 seconds to like or heart it ). But putting life at stake for half a second attention from our pals is a big blunder. If you want to capture the moment, do it safely. You have all your time. Rarely someone goes upstream of your Instagram feed again to look at your buried past selfies.

After all who cares to give away their slice of ‘attention’ for the day.

P.S : If you are reading this, I might have eaten out a minute of your attention for today. Thanks. nom nom nom..

Being curious

A collection of my daily observations and questions

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Manoj Manduva

Written by

Product designer — Electric Mobility

Being curious

A collection of my daily observations and questions

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