Coexistence between attention and distraction: An attempt to bridge the gap between Bernard Stiegler and Walter Benjamin

Abstract

Reflecting on the question of media, this paper attempts to bridge the gap between attention and distraction in Bernard Stiegler and Walter Benjamin’s respective philosophies. Based on Stiegler’s philosophical theory, this paper will demonstrate, on the one hand, how harmful the destruction of attention, i.e. deficit hyperactivity disorder (Mattew, 2012), can be to intergenerational relationships which is constructed of retentions including tertiary retention, and the other hand, how Stiegler’s theory is too exclusively focused upon ‘Generation M,’ that is children with hyper attention. We shall also analyze Benjamin’s arguments regarding distraction, a state he never condemns because he finds new political possibilities there. Based on them, this paper focuses on German educator’s arguments on film in 1910s–1920s and Azuma’s arguments regarding Otaku. German educators find distraction and deep attention in film for education. This coexistence of distraction and deep attention in film has the political potential to overcome aestheticization of politics by totalitarian Fascist regimes. As Lee argued, attention gives children unexpected creativity for teachers (Lee, 2018). On the other hand, Azuma analyzes Otaku’s work as a new type of subjectivity through the consideration of new media, Nico Nico douga. For Azuma, Otaku is inescapably linked to media such as anime, video games, and social media. From this perspective, he describes how blind identification with deep attention is destroyed by a mixture of commentators on the screen and comments that criticize the commentators. In Nico Nico douga, distraction is not disorder but self-reflection.

Keywords:

• Stiegler
• Benjamin
• attention
• distraction
• Otaku

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ‘Of this time, TV and DVD movies account for 3.51 hours; MP3, music CDs, and radio 1.44 hours; interactive media such as Web surfing 1.02 hours; and video games .49 hours. Reading brings up the rear with a mere .43 hours.’ (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007; Hayles, 2007).

2 ‘The work of art in the age of its technological reproducibility, and other writings on media’ is written in the 1930s. While the world of the silent movie began to wane with the New York release of the first ‘talkie’—The Jazz Singer—in 1927, which quickly became a huge hit, Benjamin focuses only on elements like the optical unconscious, shock, and tactile appropriation as characters of film. These elements have an affinity for not talkie, but silent films (Takemine, 2017, p. 68).

3 Lewis has tackled the same problem in Walter Benjamin’s Antifascist Education: From Riddles to Radio (Lewis, 2020). What is unique in Azuma’s approach is that he examines the distraction and new subjectivity through new media which came along after Benjamin’s time.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sunji Lee

Sunji Lee is an associate professor in Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan. He obtained a doctor’s degree of education at Tokyo University. He has published articles regarding Bernard Stiegler and catastrophe education in Japan. He applies his long-standing interest in the relation between the way to teach violent past and technology in Japan.