"Weapons of Mass Distraction?" Conference held in November
In November DISTRACT hosted the conference “Weapons of Mass Distraction?”; the final conference of the DISTRACT project. The conference consisted of two parts; a symposium exploring what research can tell us about the possible impacts of digital and social media on attention and well-being, and a workshop diving into anthropological perspectives on the tripartite relationship between attention, agency and intentionality.
In the symposium twelve prominent Danish and international researchers shared, in a debating club format, their arguments for and against one of two motions:
- Debate 1 “Social media and other digital technologies have a detrimental effect on human cognition in that it fundamentally inhibits individuals’ attention spans and capacities.
- Debate 2 “New digital technologies and platforms have had a significant and negative impact on the mental health of young people to a degree that legislative and political action is necessary.”
The interesting, enlightening, and well put arguments were presented to an audience of researchers, journalists, policy makers, and professionals working with a variety of relevant NGO’s.
After the debates, all participants were invited to a reception at the National Museum of Denmark, where Andreas Gregersen and Kirstine Damsgaard Henriksen held a presentation and demonstration of Kedsomhedsknappen (the boredom button) an initiative to grab the attention of children visiting the museum's exhibitions.
The second day was hosted by Eva Iris Otto, Rahul Rose, and Miguel Alcalde, that headed three tracks of engagements with agency and attention in which 14 early career researchers and established scholars presented papers exploring the tripartite relationship between attention, agency, and intentionality from an anthropological perspective.