Narrative in the Age of Distraction

Charles Barber, visiting writer and visiting faculty in the Psychology Department, was a guest on WNPR’s The Colin McEnroe Show to discuss long-form narrative in the current age of distraction ahead of a conference at Wesleyan on the subject, Nov. 7-8.

“I think it’s become a kind of pollution… If something doesn’t happen in six seconds, we’re lost,” said Barber, who is also director of The Connection Institute for Innovative Practice, a co-sponsor of the conference. “To really understand the world, you have to stick with things…If everything is just bits of information that aren’t really sequenced or connected, it lacks emotion and a sense of where things flow from.”

Barber and other conference participants come in around the 20 minute mark.