From the front of "Distracted":

"Attention is the building block of intimacy, wisdom, and cultural progress. If we squander our power of attention, our technological age could ultimately slip into cultural decline."

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From Publishers Weekly:

In this richly detailed and passionately argued book, Jackson (What's Happening to Home?) warns that modern society's inability to focus heralds an impending Dark Age—an era historically characterized by the decline of a civilization amid abundance and technological advancement. Jackson posits that our near-religious allegiance to a constant state of motion and addiction to multitasking are eroding our capacity for deep, sustained, perceptive attention—the building block of intimacy, wisdom and cultural progress and stunting society's ability to comprehend what's relevant and permanent. The author provides a lively historical survey of attention, drawing upon philosophy, the impact of scientific innovations and her own experiences to investigate the possible genetic and psychological roots of distraction. While Jackson cites modern virtual life (the social network Facebook and online interactive game Second Life), her research is largely mired in the previous century, and she draws weak parallels between romance via telegraph and online dating, and supernatural spiritualism and a newfound desire to reconnect. Despite the detours (a cultural history of the fork?), Jackson has produced a well-rounded and well-researched account of the travails facing an ADD society and how to reinvigorate a renaissance of attention.

Alan Lightman, author of the bestselling Einstein's Dreams and National Book Award finalist The Diagnosis and MIT professor:

"This is an important book. I found it to be a harrowing documentation of our modern world's descent into fragmentation, self alienation, and emptiness -- brought on, to a large extent, by communication technologies that distract us, dislocate us, and destroy our inner lives. Others have commented on these issues, but I have never seen them gathered together and documented as completely as Maggie Jackson has done."

About the Author:

Maggie Jackson (New York, NY) is an award-winning author and journalist who is a contributing columnist at The Boston Sunday Globe. A former foreign correspondent and national columnist for the Associated Press, she has been interviewed on National Public Radio and has contributed to the New York Times, Working Mother, and many other national publications. She is the author of What's Happening to Home? Balancing Work, Life and Refuge in the Information Age and has been interviewed in the Christian Science Monitor, on television, and on dozens of other radio shows.