Is multitasking bad for your productivity? More than a few years ago, I chanced upon an opportunity to take up a job away from the hullabaloo of city life – teaching in a school set closer to heaven than a petrol station. Being on the mountains of the Western Ghats, electronic anything had a limited influence over my tranquil existence. What of it? Well, I read nearly all the books in the library, sat on the grass for hours quietly, had my meals without a telly in the background and...wrote letters like my Daadi did. That short stint at a monastic life ended as I, literally, and figuratively, descended to my urban lifestyle, crowded with every possible mode of digital distraction. You can hardly be alone, in this modern age. Bombarded with gadgets that fit your palm to the huge screens that have replaced walls, you cannot escape the captivating attraction of being connected, entertained, stimulated and engaged all at the same time! And what happens when your senses are overactive – when you are checking your inbox, a whatsapp message, an SMS, the latest beer commercial, the number of “likes” on your clever status message? You end up being, what is colloquially called, a Multitasker – one who does many things at once. Take this Neilson report on distraction statistics during Prime Time Tv telecast, published …show more content…
Their study revealed that the people whose brains have gotten used to jumping around, easily distracted by the shiny pop-up messages or the fifty other things in their surroundings, also have the tendency to cloud important information with the irrelevant. In fact, according to them, these individuals are not even very good at switching their focus or recalling their memory very well. “They are suckers for irrelevancy”, quotes one of the researchers, Clifford
In his article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” (2008), Nicholas Carr argues that the use of the internet has affected human beings to process information. For example, reading in front of a screen and reading a printed book is not the same thing. Carr supports his assertion by his own and others experiences reading and searching information online and viewing how it has negatively shaped their ability to read long texts. He states that he cannot concentrate reading a long piece for a certain amount of time without losing focus. His purpose is to is to warn the internet and technology users of the adverse mental effects that these devices have on individuals.
In “Is Google Making Us Stupid” by Nicholas Carr uses persuasion to portray his feeling on what the internet is doing to our brains. He uses his own experiences with the mental changes he has observed in himself to influence the reader. Carr claims that “...my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do”(). He also uses the experiences of his friend not being able to immerse themselves fully in long text as evidence to his claim that the internet is making people stupid.
Is technology changing our brains for the better or for the worse? The human brain is a biological masterpiece and is the most advanced organ on the face of the planet. In Richard Restak’s essay “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” he speaks about how the advancements in technology in this modern era have affected the brain’s habits and functions. Multitasking is requiring the brain to change how it functions, its organizations, and efficiency throughout day-to-day tasks and is also enabling people to do things otherwise not possible. Within the past two decades, the amount of time we spend on using technology has increased by a large amount.
According to the prominent pathologist Bruce Friedman, admitted, “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” Carr cites a few studies of internet behavior that is influencing our brain to lack concentration. He proves
“My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing.” Nicholas Carr, a noted blogger and Pulitzer Prize winner, claims this in his article, Is Google Making us Stupid? He argues that humanity has adapted to a different type of thinking that is affecting individuals. Specifically, he feels as though he can no longer progress through a book with having difficulties concentrating. Only a few pages at a time are all he can get through before he feels the need to do other work.
The internet really has affected the circuits in our brains. The author describes our memory, how our brains are being trained, and how attached we are. People do not memorize anything anything any more because we can look it up now. We search everything we question nowadays. The author says memorization is a “waste of time.”
Every day the world is being introduced to new technology to make life easier for people. In the article, “Is google making us stupid”, author Nicholas Carr tells us about how he believes that the internet is making us stupid by changing the way our brain processes information. Carr begins to tell us how the web is causing these issues such as how he can no longer be occupied in a book for a long period of time. He then starts to talk about how his whole life is surrounded by the internet and that is to blame for the problem he has with being able to stay focused while reading; but he also talks about how at the same time the internet benefited him so much because he is a writer. When reading this article, you can see that Carr uses a lot of
Since the of creation the internet, we now work between the realms of technology and reality, in which indulge our minds into on a daily basis. Nicolas Carr, the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” tries to reveal to society that although the use of the internet has simplified multiple factors of our daily life, the complete indulgence of our attention in the internet is causing our once information thirsty minds to become completely uninterested altogether. Our minds are becoming simple and confined shells that can no longer think on their own, create their own ideas, or even interpret meanings without the help from the internet. I strongly agree with Nicolas Carr’s thoughts on how the internet has practically spoiled our brains to the
In my references I stumble upon various results of experiments that authors mention in their work and those results stated some of the consequences the brain faces after multitasking. Eric Jaffe (2012) shows how our brains are being rewired when we multitask with technology and how it’s nowadays harder for us to finish one single task in a reasonable time. Another results from the investigations is that very time the brain is forced to multitask it uses a vast amount of his nutrients leaving the person exhausted and with no energy only after a short period of time. My sources reveal that multitasking in general is bad, but when combined with technology it becomes dangerous. It has been scientifically proven that multitasking leaves us stressed,
Shawntae Aikens Technology has a found a way into our lives where we use it everyday, and some have come to the point where they depend on it. People have become concerned that the Internet is becoming a distraction and has taken over our lives. The Internet, and social media has become very addicting our smartphones have given us the chance to have the internet and social media at our hands at all times. Nicholas Carr, a writer for the Atlantic Online, wrote the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Within his article he discusses his opinion on how the internet is something that is not helping us at all.
It has happened many times, reading a full page only to realize none of the information was retained. Was it always this way? Nicholas Carr thinks he knows what happening, in “Is Google Making us Stupid?” he discusses the fact that technology is having a negative impact on our thinking and learning. He holds the belief that technology is changing the way our brains process information, which is affecting attention spans and the ability to think critically. Carr’s article is an effective analysis on the impact technology has on our brains.
Imagine a culture where people’s daily lives are centered around buying things. Imagine your mind being bombarded with ads every moment of your life, and a world of people connected to the internet, constantly being fed a stream of games, shows, and chats into their brain through a system called the Feed. This imaginary culture is reflective of what the world is like today, and the Feed is symbolic of how distracted the world has become to media. Media is not only a distraction, but it is also a destructive force because it unfocuses people’s thoughts from the real world.
The study showed “sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want.” (Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips, Pg.) “The four studies found that when people are faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers.” (Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips Pg.)
I read multitasking can cause the heart to beat extremely fast and that cause a steady flow of stress hormones. Which can cause headaches, stomach trouble, and sleep problems. With the heart beating extremely fast, that can cause problems including back pain, heart disease, and depression. Multitasking should only be used on short term goals and activities; listening to music and running, because those thing goes together.
Frantic work agendas and a continuous use of electronic devices