Greg Hlavaty, Heather Lindenman and Travis Maynard published “All the attention, all the time: How first-year students experience writing in a horizontal digital ecosystem” in "Computers and Composition."
English department faculty Greg Hlavaty, Heather Lindenman and Travis Maynard published “All the attention, all the time: How first-year students experience writing in a horizontal digital ecosystem” in Computers and Composition: An International Journal (Vol. 75, March 2025).
This article examines how first-year composition students navigate digital attention ecosystems while writing. The findings are based on a qualitative focus group study in which undergraduate students in Elon University’s first-year writing course (ENG 1100) participated in writing and reflection activities.
The article argues that students are immersed in a “horizontal attention ecosystem,” in which all online tasks, communications and media feel equally worthy of their attention. Although students attempt to manage their physical-digital writing environments strategically, the intrusive nature of current technology hinders their ability to focus, especially on academic writing assignments. When completing academic assignments, students report relying on self-restrictive measures and approaching writing as a solitary act, contrasting with writing studies’ understanding of writing as a social act. This article suggests pedagogical approaches that privilege embodied writing strategies and encourage writing-oriented social interactions between students.
The full-text of the article is available online.