My major
is in professional writing and my minor is in psychology. My interests lie in
the realm of writing (creatively and professionally), psychology, and user
experience (UX). As an aspiring UX designer (possibly UX writer), I am very
interested in the concept of attention in the digital space (i.e. the internet,
mobile apps, etc.). A UX designer designs experiences for people--we conduct
research, put ourselves in the shoes of our hypothetical users, and map out
their potential journeys. We will plan each individual step that they will take
before our product, during, and after.
Attention
has a lot to do with this process. In the digital space, websites, apps, games,
books, music, social media, and influencer content are all vying for our
attention. Rheingold discusses the importance of training our attention in a
world overloaded with information. One method Rheingold suggests to train
our attention is mindfulness meditation.
As I’ve
stated, my minor is in psychology and one course I’ve taken alongside digital
writing is a course on human cognition. In that course, there was a module on
meditation. There are two main forms of meditation according to cognitive
psychology: focused attention meditation (FA) and open monitoring meditation
(OM). FA meditation is a form of meditation where the individual directs their
attention on a point of focus, generally the inhalations and exhalations of the
breath, but sometimes it is a mantra or a visualization. OM meditation is a
practice where the individual does not direct the focus of their attention and
instead remains receptive and aware of any thoughts, emotions, bodily
sensations, or external stimuli that arise during the practice.
Without
exploring the differences in these meditation methods, Rheingold discusses a FA
approach to meditation to train our attention. This may be viewed as spotlight
awareness—a type of awareness where we maintain our focus and attention. OM
meditation may be viewed as lantern awareness where we maintain an orb of
unfocused awareness without necessarily being drawn to any specific stimuli.
The
reason I bring up my aspirations for UX writing and design is that in order to
empathize with the user, UXers must learn to focus and unfocus their attention
in such a way that mirrors how the users will interact with their product
design. A UXer can maintain lantern awareness for their own perceptions and
expectations of a product design, then switch to spotlight awareness from the
perspective of their user.
This
flexibility of focused attention, which can be trained and strengthened by alternating
between FA and OM meditations, may be beneficial to areas. Rheingold asserts
the importance that training attention has for investigating and appraising
research. Attention training is a tool that can be used for many areas of life including
our careers, creative projects, personal goal setting, and so on. The
investment of training our attention and awareness seems to yield a significant
result that attunes our information receptors and aids us in navigating the
ever-expanding content creation that we experience in digital spaces.
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