This course will explore the special, dynamic, and intimate relationship between attention and distraction, with a special focus on the use and abuse of social media. Topics will include, but not be limited to, the cultural history of isolating and engineering attention, the political advantages of creating distraction, and the technological innovations and arrangements which currently capture and/or deflect the precious resource of the (endangered?) human attention span. We will also be creating and cultivating our own exercises in sustained attention. [Tracks C, M]