Baroness Greenfield, director of Oxford’s Institute for the Future of the Mind, wrote an op-ed earlier this year. She argued the computer screen is disruptive to cognitive development.
[S]tudents are losing the ability to study properly. Constant use of the internet has rewired their brains to function differently from those of earlier generations: they skip from topic to topic in an “associative” mode of thinking, and are less capable of the linear thought required for skills like reading and writing at length. Some have even warned that the result could be greater rates of mental illness.
…It’s a cliché that information is not knowledge, but there is much truth in that idea. Understanding requires the ability to relate one subject to something else – to place something in context. If, because of your development in childhood, you lack that contextual framework, then you can only take it at face value and move on. What you see is indeed what you get. You download information, but you cannot necessarily understand it.
Sound familiar? How many blog posts do you read every day? Every hour? How many tweets? How many Facebook wall posts? How many videos do you watch on YouTube, songs listened on iTunes, pictures viewed on Flickr? How many of these social media channels are you visiting and participating over the course of five minutes?
What percentage of the content you are capturing and reading and watching online all day are you retaining when you awake the next morning?
It goes beyond the web. Think of your daily routine. Think about your private time in the shower. If you massage your shampooed hair with one hand and rub your soaped body with another hand, while singing along to some Karaoke song you just made up, can you do it? Can you use both of your hands on different parts of your body simultaneous to singing in the shower? I bet not.
If I strike a chord, here’s a newsflash for you: Multitasking — whether online or off — is a farce. Despite what every employer and job description thinks you are expected to do, multitasking won’t get you ahead. Defending your ability talk on the phone to a client while playing Tetris and instant messaging your friends is a promise waiting to be broken. Your brain is not wired to perform multiple tasks at the same time. It’s humanly impossible.
Reading this sentence while listening to music in the background is doable, but when you introduce your toddler’s crying in the background, your brain goes fuzzy.
French scientists Sylvain Charron and Etienne Koechlin discovered our brains are weaker than we think.
They conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment and proved that we are unable to divide our attention to more than two tasks at any given moment. Blame your frontopolar cortex for being incapable of multitasking.
Joshua Becker appreciates the finer things in life. Cell phone texting kills us, he opines, and he doesn’t refer to motor vehicle deaths of teens texting while driving. No. Josh writes about the benefit of single tasking, specifically around experiencing life without a 24/7 tether to your mobile device.
We habitually carry our mobile device from room to room in our homes, pull it out while conversing with friends, and refuse to walk anywhere without it. Talk about guilt by association.
Comment after comment, people write why they agree with Josh and share anecdotes. I like Michael Michalowski‘s comment the best:
I shut my phone for about a week now and feel much more free than before. I don’t really know why, but everytime there was a “gap” between two tasks, instead of relaxing or doing nothing and embracing the present moment, I grabbed my phone and texted someone. It is really an attention grabber, removing your focus from the present.
Your conversations become more meaningless, less special. You talk about anything unimportant and sometimes feel even annoyed by getting a message in the wrong moment. That’s not how I want to communicate with my friends.
It felt great to shut the phone off, but I will turn it on soon again. At least I think so. I just realized that I could leave it more often alone than before. This improves the joy of my life enormously.
Here’s a thought:
Remove the cell phone and remove the framework of social media channels. You don’t have to cease using everything; but be mindful of your actions. Moderate your reasons for doing what you do online. Rationalize that you can only conduct one or two tasks at the same time, never more. When you’re ready to minimize your life, click the reboot button and live your life the way you were meant to live it. Ready?
Granted, if you disagree with the above, don’t reboot your life but do share your thoughts.
{ 37 comments }
Twitter: henrikblunck
June 8, 2010 at 8:20 AM
The study results are doubtful, at best. There have been just as many studies that have indicated that there is a big difference from a cheap bamboo computer screen to the decent resolution of an iMac. I would say it’s the exagerated use of computers which may have changed people’s study habits…
But it is, of course, a good idea to be mindful of potential damages – and limiting the use of computers will be beneficial for most people, although I would say the main difference from too much television and being online is that you are, after all, active on a computer whereas television is passive.
My 0.02$ anyway.
.-= From Henrik Blunck to you: Earning Money Online — Blog Coming of Age =-.
TV is passive? I guess you haven’t watched a movie or TV show where you couldn’t wait for the commercial to end to get back into the plot. And how about the up-and-coming 3D TV?
I agree with Henrik. A lot of facts were stated, but I think this only applies to those who overdo it. But I do negate the idea of multitasking being farce. I have read an article before about “online bingo” being a good exercise for the mind, particularly for old people. For the game allows its gamers to multitask through hand and eye coordination, in which brain cells are being more active. Hmm, I do think this also works on social media sites, since users constantly think of words to use in interacting as well as in absorbing information when reading blogs, tweets, wall posts or even in watching videos
Anyway, this entry may be too controversial but it also made a lot of sense, especially with the facts that was well researched by professionals. Thanks Ari!
Regards,
Jason Acidre
Hand and eye coordination would not be multitasking, according to the scientists — for that involves two tasks, the hand and the eye.
That was a very interesting article.
I liked reading the mobile phone bit, that was great! People feeling more free without the phone, like its holding them back, et cetera, et cetera. I don’t have a mobile phone. I never have, but I cannot say that I never will. I don’t know why, I just don’t think I need one. TBH I don’t like them, and I don’t really know why, is it a lack of freedom? Or is it the fact that I can do everything they can do and more on my computer for free?
Anyway, back to the article, I don’t believe that it is dangerous, we are always adapting as a race, its what we are good at! So its a new type of activity we are adapting to.
Computers and social media is the biggest (and possible even bigger) leap since the industrial revolution. Quite coincidently I have written an article about social media, and you can find a link at the bottom of this rather long comment.
Its not bad, its not good, its different. Results of loads of contradicting studies come out every day, and yet we still do what we do. Why worry? Anyone ever thought that its not this causing that disease, and this causing that disorder, but it might just be the worrying?
Don’t worry about it, until there is a significant amount of data corroborating the theory that means that you should worry about it, that’s my opinion!
Sorry about the length of the comment, I just had a lot to say, regarding the article
Thanks again for a good, thought provoking article!
Christopher
.-= From Christopher Roberts to you: Is Social Media Just a Fad? =-.
Never apologize for length.
Okay, thanks for the confidence.
P.S Got your email about the new comment spam system, seems good
.-= From Christopher Roberts @ Technology Blog to you: Is Social Media Just a Fad? =-.
In his new book, “The Shallows,” Nicholas Carr argues that we are getting better at multitasking. But in doing so, we are paying a price by losing our abilities to concentrate, analyze, think clearly and be creative. Here is an NPR interview with him from last week: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127370598
So, you’d agree with the French scientists’ conclusion that the more tasks you do, the less you can focus?
Thank you, that you’ve mentioned my comment! I really appreciate that, wondering how influential one’s comment still can be. Wow!
And I can support your blog post fully. My head really feels bad when doing many tasks at once, trying to follow every tweet on twitter and reading all that good stuff out there. My brain just goes insane! But we got accustomed to that noisy burdening feeling, ’cause we feel it all the time!
That’s why we should disconnect from social media from time to time. To experience what it is to feel(!) the silence in your head. It’s liberating.
Do people read blog posts and not comments? As you can see above, I sometimes glean more insight from a comment than what sparked it.
How do you feel about walking into a meeting or some event without your calendar, knowing a subsequent event may be scheduled? Even before the cellphone, who brought paper calendars with them? Yet, it’s expected today. Thoughts?
My first thought was: Hell, back then we REMEMBERED it. And this is so true..
Ari, multitasking can be useful in certain situations (like washing dishes while talking on the phone), but most people think they are being more productive with multitasking when in fact they are being less productive. The brain has to switch back and forth between the two tasks and time is lost when that happens, and the brain has to readjust to all the parameters of the different task.
I usually do one thing at a time.
Regarding cell phones and computer time, I take long breaks every day from the computer, and just about every evening. I also shoot for at least one computer-free day a week.
And my cell phone is usually turned off.
.-= From John Soares @ Time Management Techniques to you: Multitasking Can Increase Productivity — For Two Tasks, But Not Three =-.
Mathematically, you consider 2 a multiple?
Twitter: kikolani
June 8, 2010 at 1:43 PM
I think cell phones definitely interrupt your ability to be in the present. If you’re sitting at home, enjoying time with your family, and your get a call from a coworker, even if you don’t answer it your brain still “leaves” the present moment of what you are doing and travels into why is this person calling me, I wonder what is going on at work, will there be something I need to do the next day I’m in that I wasn’t scheduled to, did I forget something, etc. And if it doesn’t bother you, it might bother a family member who starts to think about whether the other person is going to have to go to work or take a long call, etc. Either way, it disrupts the moment.
I think multi-tasking, even on a small level, does affect your brains ability to absorb the moment. I used to watch movies while working on my laptop, and the result is I have no idea how some movies ended, even though I’ve “watched” them, albeit with distractions.
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Simple On-Page Tag Optimization for Bloggers =-.
Are you watching that movie on a TV set while holding your computer, or are you watching the movie on a section of your computer screen?
Twitter: kikolani
June 9, 2010 at 12:37 PM
I’ve done both… watching a movie on TV with my laptop in my lap, or watching a movie on one part of the screen while doing something else in the other.
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Simple On-Page Tag Optimization for Bloggers =-.
Twitter: kikolani
June 8, 2010 at 1:56 PM
Of course, speaking of skipping from topic to topic and multi-tasking, I saw a tweet going to this post about 21 things my dog taught me about being a better man. I went to the post, skipped down to the 21 things, and thought “aw, how sweet” while listening to the on-going conversation in my office.
Then I get to the very end of the post to see the picture of the dog with 1995 – 2010 below it. Being a pet lover, I was hit with sadness like a freight train. To think I could have just read the bullet points and made some comment (like some in the posts) about the 21 things while missing the whole point to the post about the loss of his pet, which the author detailed in the first paragraph that I bypassed to get to the bullet points.
Classic example that highlights what you could miss while multi-tasking and speed reading.
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Simple On-Page Tag Optimization for Bloggers =-.
Hmm. I clicked that link and I read the first sentence. You didn’t?
Twitter: kikolani
June 9, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Nasty habit of mine… when I know there is a list, I skip to the list. I think I read one too many posts where the introduction was amazing, but the list items were lacking, so now I skip to the list items to make sure they are things I really want to know.
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Simple On-Page Tag Optimization for Bloggers =-.
I think there are two separate issues here…I agree with you on multi-tasking–it just doesn’t work. But I would argue that a much deeper change is going on in the way we think and relate to our world. It is pointless to berate students for failing to be rational and linear thinking when those traits are more often a handicap in dealing with a disruptive, unpredictable life.
Don’t berate the students. Berate society that leads to that assumption, Dave.
Important discussions for sure, but for most of the world, food and clean water are the pressing concerns of life. It’s thinking about the promise and peril of the next 30 years that most robs my focus.
.-= From Adriel Hampton to you: Social Semantic Web: ‘List Me Monday’? #LMM =-.
Care to elaborate beyond a sentence?
I generally reserve comments of more than a sentence for my own blog posts
To much of anything can interrupt our life style. When you busy with your mobile means you are missing some idea or some task. I personally feel that way. My brain only think – how I can reach more audience even when I trying to relax little bit. The negative effect is, I forget to think about more important aspect of life. I just trying my best to reduce this effect.
.-= From Arafat Hossain Piyada to you: 5 Tips To Stay Focused On Your Blogging Effectively =-.
As an aside, if your brain thinks in one language then why do you write this is another?
Twitter: waynejohn
June 9, 2010 at 1:49 AM
That hits home a bit. I’ve been stripping everything away that needless, but still return to do those same activities now and then. I never did get into the mobile thing yet, in fact my phone is darn near a brick. After dropping my “good” phone I didn’t feel like forking over another $400 for the latest gadgetry. I daresay the phone is now a leash around the neck of the world.
.-= From Wayne John to you: That working-out thing-a-ma-bob =-.
Your phone is a brick? Meaning, it’s a dinosaur from the early 1990s or it weighs you down when toting it in your pocket?
Why do you need it?
My last real cell usage was in my early 20′s; I just turned 40 and do not miss it one bit. If I’m home, I have my land-line for talking, which after all is what a phone is for; if I’m away from home, I’m already busy, obviously.
Multitasking does not work well for me; one thing at a time, does. If I’m behind, I may have to to small degrees, but more often then not, it just puts me further behind.
.-= From Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing to you: The Future of DEDC – Part 4 – FINALIZED!…..? =-.
Suppose you worked in a home office. Would you still use your landline for talking? Which kind of talking, if not both?
I do work at home, although phone isn’t really used much. If it were, I’d have to seriously look at costs of cell vs. another land-line.
Which kind of talking?
.-= From Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing to you: The Future of DEDC – Part 4 – FINALIZED!…..? =-.
Twitter: #!/sandeetweets
June 9, 2010 at 1:17 PM
There are so many things I wish to comment on here my multitasking mind is in a whirl!
First of all as a mother this hits me on many levels. My kids are well screened teenagers, if you know what I mean. But they seem to be developing, just as I did, with reasonably good marks in school, a focus on friends and social interaction, and learning about what interests them from whatever source they find. For example my son learns a lot from video games. He loves RPGs and they spark his interest in a subject, which leads him to movies and books and websites about the same. I think schools and teachers have a pretty tough time competing with the zillion dollar digital world, but I do notice my kids are enthused and engaged when a teacher with a personality and zest for life turns up! Will my kids be able to write essays when they go to university? Will my kids go to university? Hmm. I’ll keep you posted.
I am a social-networking marketer by trade, but I have put myself on a schedule for my own social networking. Frankly, I find it addictive. My brain loves the little zings of pleasure that come from the LOL moments, or sharing the Awws! I am eager to see what’s new, and crash when the web is slow or I have to share my computer. But my creativity is engaged as I think of things to make my friends giggle or ponder, and I’m delighted when they respond. So I allow myself a couple of hours of this per day because I can’t do anything else at the same time. It is remarkable how many times the pasta has overflowed on the stove!
What book publishers fear most is that books will be replaced by screens. I am here to say that what I have disposed of in my life to make room for my on-line life are television, magazines, and newspapers. I don’t miss them a bit. And I still read 4 – 6 books a month. The public library’s on-line catalogue has become my best friend!
The cell phone is not something I am so attached to. As a 49 year old who needs glasses to read it is not an easy task to text message on a tiny phone keypad. But I love my cell phone at the cottage, where I do not have internet, because I can still check my Facebook, and my emails when I want to. I basically use the cell phone as a phone. Call me a dinosaur.
Now can I do all this at once? You bet! I’m a mom! Soothing a crying baby, while following a recipe and making dinner, while teaching a toddler her letters, noting where the dog is pooping in the backyard, comes naturally to me. However, I have discovered that when I write – that is the only thing I can do. It is the only activity I engage in that requires my entire mind. If I wander, my words falter. So in a sense writing is meditation for me. And what do we do in social networking and text messaging? Why, we write, of course! And if writing is a form of meditation then we are actually healing our brains. So…. food for thought, I hope. And onward multi-taskers!
You said never apologize for length, so I won’t
I’ve become to accustom to multitasking that I can’t seem to concentrate on normal tasks without having some form of media playing, 9 times out of 10 a movie. I constantly waste time by turning and watching bits and pieces of the movie while working, but I can’t seem to wean myself off of it. I’ve have always had one screen for working and one screen for media, so I feel off if it’s not there.
Not only that, I’ll probably open 30 tabs or more on Firefox and swiftly move through each one – sometimes reading half a blog post on one site, half a post on another, pause for the fight scene, check my email, and continue reading the first post. It’s probably taken twice as long to comment here because I keep trying to watch The Sum of All Fears. Oh, that Affleck!
.-= From Daniel to you: Guerilla Marketing =-.
Thanks ari for your very information post i’d like to tell it thesis post. Really enjoy this article. I think cell phone affect more on me. Can you believe that i use my cell phone over 11 hours per day!!
We do need cell phones and social media.. I don’t believe we can live without it anymore. Now it’s a matter of limiting the usage of both. We have to learn when it’s time to socialize through online networks and when we should just let go.
As someone who makes a living via being on the computer all day this is a rather frightening article!
Thanks very much for your insights on this… I still doubt I’ll be willing/able to give up my personal tether to the phone and CPU though
.-= From Sam@rockstar to you: Streetfest in Images – May Bank Holiday London =-.
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