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Interesting article I found linked to from Drudge:
While the Internet has enormous benefits in delivering incredible amounts of information at incredible speed, it's also a distracting and interruption-rich environment.Carr said it encourages quick shifts in focus -- and discourages sustained attention and the ability to think deeply and creatively about one topic and to challenge conventional wisdom.Popularity-driven search engines, in one of the ironies of an information-rich Internet, worsen the problem by leading everyone to the same sources, he said.Social networks, while pleasurable and fun, increase distractedness by bombarding users with brief bits of information."We take in so much information so quickly that we are in a constant state of cognitive overload," Carr argued."Multitasking erodes cognitive control. We lose our ability to say that this is important, this is unimportant. All we want is new information."
Writer urges Internet junkies to 'switch off' and thinkI think the author is probably right, not only because of personal experience, but also because of the kinds of students around today. In the university where I have been teaching classes as part of my program, I have gotten some feedback from some students who complain about how "boring" class is. I have to wonder if these are the same students who bring computers in and log on to Facebook rather than paying attention to lectures. Sitting in class for 50 minutes requires some level of concentration on spoken words and images shown, and if something in class isn't as "exciting" as "friending" someone online, the student's attention will likely drift away from what is being taught.I think back to when I was in college when there was no internet in the classrooms, no text messaging, nothing to distract you from the lecture at hand aside from immediate things (newspapers, other classmates, etc.). I do not recall ever being "bored to death", even if things being taught were not of the greatest interest to me. So, is the internet/information overload hampering the ability of students to concentrate today? I say probably so.
I actually find myself not using the internet as much anymore as I used to. I instead tend to pick up books more. For example, I spent about an hour online yesterday and then spent the rest of the day sitting in my backyard reading a book. The joys of being on sick leave after back surgery. ;D
I think back to when I was in college when there was no internet in the classrooms, no text messaging, nothing to distract you from the lecture at hand aside from immediate things (newspapers, other classmates, etc.). I do not recall ever being "bored to death", even if things being taught were not of the greatest interest to me.
Wow Phid... I can clearly recall certain classes in my undergraduate program 28-29 years ago where I was "bored to death". Sure, there were distractions (co-eds, mainly ;D) - but distractions don't induce boredom. In my mind (and memory) it was boredom that induced finding distractions. I've known several platform instructors who had a delivery not unlike that of Ben Stein's character in Ferris Buehler's Day Off.To be fair, I think that there are boring instructors, boring subjects (depending where the students' interests lie) and disengaged students (who will be disengaged regardless of the instructor or subject).When you think about it, the typical college (or secondary school) class is not that different from when Aristotle taught - now we have blackboards or dry-erase boards rather than drawing in the dirt with a stick (or on a slate) - and some audio-visual is employed, but is the method really all that different? I would say that the current generation of 18-22 year olds have engaged in learning through a different socialization process - and have come more and more to seek seemingly instant information. I think that it might be more accurate to describe them as having a thirst for "information" rather than a thirst for "knowledge." They search for information (and get frustrated when the search engine takes more than 5 - 10 seconds to deliver the search results), review the information, pluck the "nuggets" that they need from the information, use them, and discard the majority of the info. The learning that takes place is in how to find the information, more than in what it means (my opinion, at any rate).
Do you think all this information overload is causing ADD? Not saying ADD is the excuse here, but maybe that's why kids can't or don't pay attention anymore. There's just too much out there for them to focus properly. (have to go now...need to update my Facebook status)
Really, I cannot recall being “bored to death” as an undergraduate….perhaps I am not remembering correctly, but then again I was a philosophy major so I was into somewhat abstract concepts at the time. As a freshman I told myself that I was fortunate when doing homework every day since I was able to learn something new that I had never known before. Perhaps that helped guide my attitude throughout my studies.I think there may be something to the quest for "information" rather than "knowledge", so long as this "information" is a catch-all word for the entire spectrum of what goes on in the world (including social networking, etc.). But I think there is probably a tendency among students nowadays to go to the easiest source of information and to reject that which is not so "easy" to digest. If a person goes to a web site he doesn't like, he can immediately close that window and go to a different site; but if he is forced to sit in a class he is not thrilled with after a few minutes, does he get upset because he can't "close it" immediately?I know from split-level classes I am a student in (with graduates and undergraduates in the course) that the undergraduates typically will use their laptops in class about 1/3 for note taking, and 2/3 for miscellaneous stuff on the internet. It's given me the impression that the classroom is where the battle for attention takes place, and the internet normally provides a higher entertainment value.
Do you think all this information overload is causing ADD? Not saying ADD is the excuse here, but maybe that's why kids can't or don't pay attention anymore. There's just too much out there for them to focus properly. (have to go now...need to update my Facebook status)
I think it's lack of discipline combined with greater opportunity to be distracted (which leads back to that article I linked to at the top). I can't imagine that there are more learning disabilities today than there were 50 or 100 years ago (think about all the chemicals and stuff people used to be exposed to), although there are many more people diagnosed with problems now because of better detection.
