Paige Mason
English 110 H6
10-27-17
Paper 2 Final Draft
The Cons to The Digital World
Think about how you spend your day. How many times do you check your phone? Computer? The great debate is out there on whether technology is actually a distraction and a problem. Sam Anderson author of “In Defense of Distraction” believes that technology is beneficial. He understands that technology is distracting but in order to solve the problem you would have to get rid of technology all together. On the other side, we have Richard Restak, Professor of neurology at George Washington Hospital University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and author of “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era” thinks the opposite. He thinks technology, and distractions are a huge problem, resulting in ADD/ ADHD behavior. He also discusses the negative effects multitasking does to your brain. The digital world is negatively impacting young Americans due to the interruption of their attention. With devices such as phones, computers, TV, and other wireless devices we are living through distractions and that is falsely leading us to believe we can multitask and it’s slowing our productivity down.
Multitasking in a myth that we have accepted and incorporated in our everyday lives. The concern with this is that young adults today believe that they can handle doing two talks at once. What they don’t know is that the brain doesn’t have the capacity to withstand more than one task being thrown its way. In “Defense of Distraction” by Sam Anderson he talks about his conversation with David Meyer, expert on multitasking. Meyer and other researchers have proved over and over again that multitasking is in fact a myth. Because the brain processes the different kinds of important on separate channels such as visual channel, language channel, auditory channel and more, each channel is only able to process one track of important at one time. Meyers puts it as this “if you overburden a channel the brain becomes inefficient and mistake prone.” Americans today disregard this truth and believe they are invincible to making mistakes and being inefficient. This shows when people are talking on the phone while driving. People think that they can text and drive when really, it’s just taking their attention off the road making them that more likely to get into an accident. Since the brain as we know can only process one stream of information at a time talking on the phone and driving is dangerous. Especially because dialing and steering are both manual tasks, and looking out the windshield and reading a phone screen are both visual channels. Wouldn’t you think that people would learn from hearing about texting while driving accidents that our bodies can’t handle more than one task at a time?
While we think we are multitasking we are actually creating more distractions that will halt productivity. This is a problem, a huge one. If someone is constantly multitasking their efficiency of getting whatever they are doing done goes way down. Young people have daily routines whether it’s having to do chores, homework and daily responsibilities their there. With distractions such as a phone, or a tablet, or a wii or kindle or some kind of distraction every time they take time to use the device they are adding on time to their tasks to get the job done. Therefor they are being less productive. But how can anyone get anything done when you have the internet around. The internet is engineered to help us feed into our distractions. Whether you’re checking the weather for tomorrow, or checking the score of the game, or looking at that funny new meme, you’re distracted. Yes, sometimes the distractions make you happy, but the point is you’re distracted and you’re not focusing on what is at task. The internet is the mother load of distractions. As Anderson says ”we’re rewarded constantly but something called “ variable ratio schedule, “in which the rewards at random”
(Anderson 7). This randomness is like gambling. You don’t win every time but when you do it’s great. Thus, the desire to continue to “win” is what distracts users from whatever they were doing before. As gambling is an addiction to some the internet and its random rewards are to others. Robin Henig, a journalist and author discusses this idea called emerging adulthood. This is a time period of the unknown the life transition phase but it’s also the time for exploration and self-discovery. Her thoughts on distractions are this: if we are constantly being distracted then how can we find our passions and find out right path? A solution that people think work to ignore the distractions in life would to use illegal substances like neuroenhancers. Over years and years this is now the norm to use substances from tea to neuro enhancers. This shuts off the desire to check those tabs. But taking drugs isn’t going to help in the long run. These addictive qualities of the internet make it hard to have the willpower against distractions.
Many readers say that Americans do benefit from the digital world. Communication, Information and Innovation are all positives aspects we get with living in a digital world. Communication has no barriers these days. Time and location hold no boundaries when communicating with families, friends, co workers anymore. Technology has allowed us to be able to communicate whenever and wherever we want. Another positive aspect to living in a digital world is how quickly information can be received. One click of a button and you can see videos, pictures, stories, podcasts about what’s going on in the world. Lastly Innovation. Living in a digital world has allowed Innovation to soar.
With such high demands on attention we are now creating a society with ADHD. The major change now we see it when it comes to the personality characteristics. Once categorized at dysfunctional (hyperactivity, impulsiveness and easy distractibility) is now what we see every day and is almost the norm. By feeding into the demands that our society has created for ourselves and specifically for our brains we are allowing our brains to run ragged and work overtime. Civilization is unhealthily living with short attention span. Stewart Brand a noted commentator on technology and social change believes that this short attention span trend is most likely coming from “the acceleration of technology”. ADD expert Paul Walker even says that “The attention span of the actual adult is greatly exaggerated”. As a society, we are not helping ourselves out when we actually need to.
At a certain point though, it’s important to understand the fine line of the technology being the problem and yourself being the problem because key to helping ourselves though is having strong executive function. It’s all about making conscious decisions. We all have an executive function but it actually using it is where as a society we struggle. The reason why It is so important to have a good executive function is so in situations where you could be distracted (noisy construction during a meeting, a loud bird while having a conversation, distractions of tabs on laptops) you can have the power to ignore it. Winifred Gallagher, the author of Rapt believes in her mind that “The most promising solution to our attention problem is also the most ancient: meditation”. This is because meditation makes the brain less “sticky”, meaning it would now see the quick flashing images that our brains would miss before. This is also not the only reason why meditation is so recommended. It has also been shown to boost your mood which would also fuel your attention. Research has been shown that having positive emotions can allow your visual field to expand thus aiding your attention.
Though finding techniques to not be distracted is important it doesn’t always work. It all comes down to executive function and without having a strong executive function young Americans are going to continue to be distracted by the digital world.
World Cited
Restak, Richard Restak. “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era” Emerging:
Contemporary Readings for Writers, edited by Barclay Barrios. 3rd ed., Bedford/St. Martin, 2016, pp 372-385
Anderson, Sam Anderson. “In Defense of Distraction” New York New & Politics, edited by New York Media. May 17, 2009, pp1-13.
Henig,Robin Henig. “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, edited by Barclay Barrios. 3rd ed, Bedford/St Martin, 2016, pp 198-213
