Process Post #3: Organizing Menu Interface and Thoughts on “How I Got My Attention Back”

*Updated March 14th

This week, I organized my menu interface and made the PUB101 section more organized by labelling them under specific assignments for easy navigation and a minimal aesthetic. In posts, I started organizing my texts by bolding, highlighting and inlining specific paragraphs to emphasize certain points. Through adding the menu interface, I am beginning to think of ways I can make my website more accessible and clean. I want to keep a clean aesthetic and have things organized and will implement a accessibility button within the next few weeks. I am also thinking of adding a search engine to increase easy access.

Craig Mod pinpoints the epitome of living in the twenty-first century, the fight for our attention creates the perfect opportunity for manipulation. As a society, we have learned to be heavily reliant on technology, and it’s difficult to imagine a life that is disconnected from the digital sphere. It’s difficult to imagine not being up to date with current affairs and celebrity news at the touch of our fingertips. It’s hard to fight the urge to destress from work/school by dissociating on TikTok. It’s hard to imagine a life in which my brain isn’t rotting from the media I am consuming daily. As Mod (2017) exclaims, ” An endless refresh, always with more, optimized just for your interests, right in your hand”. However, Mod is transparent with the inability to disconnect fully and the privilege that comes from total disconnection. As a solution, he proposes to be intentional with our attention by delaying our use of technology, especially by reclaiming our morning. I agree with Mod’s solution and think anything can be healthy in moderation. As mentioned above, I think the emphasis on making websites/mobile platforms accessible is also causing a shift in the way we consume things. If things are easily accessible to us the harder it is to stop using that platform or technology. Our design choices matter because what we choose to implement and leave out determines the attention of our readers.