Frost Design (Sydney) continues their deFrost series of talks with Stuart Buchanan speaking on The Cult of the Now. Director of The Nest and Head of Digital for The Frost*Group, Stuart campaigns for the dissolution of The Cult of The Now, for a connected experience that celebrates relevancy not immediacy, and looks at practical ways in which we can bring focus to our digital lives.

Every moment of every day is now pregnant with the possibility of new information – devices are persistently within reach 24 hours a day, chirping for our attention. When the call comes, we instinctively respond – so much so that the average person now consumes up to 75 gigabytes of media every day and switches applications 36 times every hour. The net affect of rabid information consumption and multitasking is not only distracting,
it is also now proven to be literally rewiring our brains.

But what value does immediate information bring? What is so important that it has the power to interrupt our workflow, our personal conversations, our intimate moments? We're constantly being told that our attention is valuable – so why are we throwing it away?

As individuals, we have the power to say "no" – if only we would.

As digital designers, writers, developers and producers, we have the power to change the paradigm – if only we would.

April 10, 2014 in Sydney; click to attend.