ABSTRACT
The sociologist Dalton Conley of New York University observes that, during his lessons, instead of taking notes as you might expect, the students update their Facebook pages, watch videos, send messages, surf the net, and maybe check on Wikipedia what he is saying. In other times, this sort of behaviour would have been considered a serious lack of attention (and respect for the teacher) and would have been immediately banned or drawn attention to with a reprimand, inviting the student caught out to repeat what the teacher had just said. If Conley’s students (like many of their European counterparts) fumble with their phone and with notebooks, without even bothering to hide it that much, the teacher is not in the least disconcerted by it and considers it “normal” behaviour, appropriate or at least preparatory to the life that awaits them out there, in the hyper-technological and chaotic cities, where life moves at a faster and faster pace. Indeed, Dalton Conley’s interpretation 1 of this behaviour is intended to consider fractional and intermittent attention as evidence of the times, a sign of a signifi cant change in human behaviour and, in particular, a new trend called “multitasking”, which prepares the individual to deal with the tasks in a professional role, which require simultaneous action and the ability to move quickly from one interest to another, from one aspect to another, to cope with the current unavoidable need that mixes professional and family life, work and leisure, information and communication, all together, continuously. Yet this phenomenon appears to be an effect of loneliness, since it tries to group together more things, more opportunities, like quickly looking around when talking: anxiety and haste.
