Posted on 04/18/2011 5:47:28 AM PDT by algernonpj
... The problems we face today don't call for shallow understanding and short attention spans. They demand minds that can tolerate dull details, and maintain focus when wading through abstruse subject matter. Unparalleled access to information only does so much to solve problems, absent comprehension and perspective ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It brought to mind two things: A 1985 interview with Yuri Bezmenov, and conversations I have had with experienced educators on the prevalence of extremely short attention spans in students.
shift key broken on keyboard....pls forgive - anyhoo, not too long ago, i heard that we are bombarded with more information in one day than what people got in a lifetime 100 years ago. biologically, the brain has not evolved to take it all in and therefore there is an overload of stimulation, hence the short attention spans and brain fog.
Hence why I like reading books a lot. Also enjoy exercising. But I’ll be honest, I do txt, facebook, and receive tweets a lot. Tweets are for sports (as a University of Kentucky fan, I need to know what is going on at all times).
I can see where it’s hurting society though. Some people/kids are just obsessed and really are too attached to some things.
10 years ago I was playing poker with a guy who said that he could live without technologies such as the internet, but once he got he could not live without it. I finding this is true about my blackberry.
@everyone just had a muffin.
Every day I’m amazed at the ability to have the Library of Alexandria at my finger tips. You have two shift keys.
I have found exercise the best thing to relieve stress and overload.
Like you I like reading books. I can put them down, mull over what I have read, add in my own notes. Often I find that the book version of a story is much better than the movie version. Book stores are one of the places I should never enter with real or plastic money.
Interesting.
When writing and especially printing came in they essentially destroyed the previously highly developed art and science of human memory. The Druids based their religion and society on verbatim memorization of poems and laws that have been estimated to be roughly the same size as the Old Testament. Took most of them 20 years. Nothing similar is routinely done today.
Not too many people would classify writing and printing as a net loss for human capabilities. These technologies allowed us to focus on using data rather than memorizing it. IOW we outsourced data storage from our brains to paper.
Computers are allowing us to similarly outsource many lower-level aspects of using data (thinking) to computers.
Will this allow a greater focus by humans on higher levels of mental activity? Or will it result in a net loss of thinking ability? What about that large percentage of the human population not really capable of higher order thinking? What will we do as computers become capable of higher and higher order data manipulation?
Who knows?
The Bird Cage for the Muses.
Book sales are what kills me. We have a big one every year at a local college. I think I spend $100+ there. Ugh. Got over 75 books though. My rational is that it's cheaper than buying them new. haha.
I don’t believe it.
Uh... what was I talking about?
Thanks for the link. Looks like an interesting book.
I have long believed that we have become bogged down in an "information overload" over time. I think of it primarily from a business management perspective, and there's no doubt in my mind that the quality of work and level of productivity among employees has declined considerably in the last 10-15 years.
I was probably one of the last people on the planet to get a cell phone. And one of my standard business practices is to shut off my e-mail throughout most of the day so I can concentrate on getting things done and answer e-mail at regular intervals throughout the day rather than having them interrupt me constantly.
One of the things that grates on me is when people attending a business meeting check and answer text messages while the meeting is being conducted.
HIM (having called me on my cell phone while I was traveling for business): "I need to discuss so-and-so with you."
ME: (picking up the phone because I know who it is and don't know if this is an emergency): "I'm traveling right now, but I'll call you later when I reach Columbus."
HIM: "This needs to be addressed ASAP, and I've been trying to reach you via e-mail but you're not responding."
ME: "I'm not responding to e-mails because I'm driving 200 miles today. And it doesn't need to be addressed ASAP. That's a legal document that requires a response within 30 days, dude -- not 30 minutes."
HIM: "Get a written response back to me after you get to Columbus."
ME: "That's not going to happen, either. I'm meeting with a client tomorrow and I have to work on a presentation when I get to the hotel tonight."
HIM (getting angry): "What the hell am I supposed to do with this while you're gone?"
ME: "I have a great idea . . . Why don't you do whatever you would have done before e-mail and cell phones even existed? We can address this far more effectively if I do it at the office than if I do while I'm driving down I-70 or while I'm holed up in my hotel room doing work that I'm getting paid to do."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.