Technology is leading to a distracted generation

[From LauraIngraham.com: Technology is leading to a distracted generation] "...Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks - and less able to sustain attention.

'Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,' said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: 'The worry is we're raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently...'"

See:

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction by Matt Richtel

Your Brain on Computers, "a series [examining] how a deluge of data can affect the way people think and behave..."

Will you buy video games for Christmas? Good thing or bad thing?

According to Dr. Michael Rich, neuroscientists say that these technologies can be great if your son will be a fighter pilot but they are not so great for brain development in other areas (e.g. rapid switching, reflective deep thinking tendencies, empathy, etc.). Teachers are also saying that kids lack social skills. A lack of empathy, for example, may lead to domestic violence and bullying.

Response to comment [from a Catholic]:  "[H]ere at TOL it is hard not to be distracted by your threads."

Oh, hush. Eph 2:8.

Response to comment [from a Christian]:  "...[M]odern work is all about multi-tasking."

This Dr. Rich said that the benefit of learning to multitasking is a myth.

Technology is leading to a distracted generation