The LP assignment for IMO was to write our thoughts on whether the internet is making the human race dumber.
Here is my paper:
The Age of StumbleUpon.com
Reading through the articles provided to me to complete this assignment, the one I struck me most was Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains by Brandon Keim where he interviews Maggie Jackson, an author on focus, technology, and the future.
The thing that stuck with me most in the article was the fact that she did not say we were getting dumber. She stated that the world we live in in much different than before, we are “part of an institutionalized culture of interruption, and makes it hard to concentrate and think creatively.”
I believe this is very true. I want to use myself as an example. As a child going to elementary, middle, and high school with no real technology in the class room, I was able to concentrate on eight hours of school a day and never really get bored. As of now I have only four hours of schooling a day, but with the use of my laptop, cellphone, and, iPod, I can easily not hear a word of class. I must force myself to stop Stumbling in class and pay attention. Personally I feel I retain more information if I am forced to wrtie notes by hand!
With so much information on the internet I feel that people can ask a question and they can receive accurate answers unlike any other time in our history. Therefore, I feel that we are not dumber on a whole, but I feel with some much information at our fingertips, we have smaller attention spans. We want what we want, now.
Elizabeth Craig is a Graduate student at Full Sail University getting a Master’s Degree in Entertainment Business. She also has a music background with an Associate’s Degree in Recording Arts and a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Business - both from Full Sail University. To learn more about Elizabeth visit her Blog or Twitter.
This class taught me organization. There is so much information on the internet and to be able to use it effectively you have to be organized.