Continuous Partial Attention

I was just reading an interesting Newsweek article, entitled "(Some) Attention Must Be Paid!" The article discusses the key note speaker, Linda Stone, at the '06 Emerging Technology Conference and her very salient point that many of us experience a phenomenon called "Continuous Partial Attention."

From her key note summary:

Continuous Partial Attention describes the behavior of continuously monitoring as many inputs as possible, paying partial attention to each. We keep what we consider to be the highest priority contact or activity in greatest focus and constantly scan the periphery to see if something more important should be displacing our current top choice.

From the Newsweek article:

Stone first noticed the syndrome a decade ago when she was creating a product for Microsoft that let people interact in a "virtual world." She found that her test users wanted to fade in and out while conducting other activities. This turns out to be the way most of us work—and live—today. With an open communications channel the e-mail keeps flowing, the instant messages keep interrupting and the Web feeds keep coming. CPA stems from our desire, Stone says, to be "a live node on the network."