ABSTRACT
The human brain’s first priority when entering a new environment is to establish safety. This evolved as a necessity for survival and remains a part of the human brain’s makeup in the modern day. Without a sense of safety, fully engaging your attention in the remote environment becomes challenging. To understand how attention can be affected when you are situated in a remote environment, the six processes of attention are described. The first two processes in the attention framework are alerting and orienting. These preparatory processes relate to your state of mind as you get ready to pay attention. The remaining four attention processes are prioritizing, ignoring, switching, and sustaining. These selective processes enable you to focus your attention on specific things in the environment, while tuning out others. Your brain selectively chooses what is relevant in your inner and outer world. The emotional and physical challenges that people encounter paying attention in a flat, two-dimensional environment play a significant role in shaping the remote experience. People face attention challenges simply by being confined to a digital window.
