From Ambient to Adaptation: Interpersonal Attention Management Among Young Adults

Ubiquitous mobile usage provides more opportunities to interact with more people than ever, but with the constraint that people's capacity for attention to others is limited. People manage demands on their attention by limiting their availability to others, and this may cause failure in attempts to reach others. In today's always-connected world, we know very little about how people manage their own availability, maintain awareness of others, and adapt their strategies for reaching others in the face of failure. This paper draws on results from a qualitative field study to present an integrative, joint action approach to attention management. Results suggest that mobile devices play a large part in assessing ambient awareness of others and signaling availability, but are rarely used in isolation. Attention is a continuum that spans multiple devices and channels involving actions and choices learned over time.