Your brain on computers

[Paddy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technolo...;ref=technology

Interesting article, with a couple of fun tests. I did very well on the focus test (way better than the multitaskers) but not well on the switching tasks (worse than the multitaskers) so I don't know what that means! From the comments, I wasn't the only one with these results.

(You will notice, of course, the overwhelming preponderance of Apple products in the panorama view of the main subject's work area... )

To me, the most disturbing thing in the entire article was this paragraph:

QUOTE

Lily, a second-grader, is allowed only an hour a day of unstructured time, which she often spends with her devices. The laptop can consume her.

What happened to just playing? Does this mean that this poor child doesn't have any free time to do as she wishes? Yikes.

The comments are interesting too - lots of reading!

More on the subject:
Is Google making us stupid?

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

Lily...is allowed only an hour a day of unstructured time

QUOTE
Does this mean that this poor child doesn't have any free time to do as she wishes?

Well, she IS a first grader. She needs to be ready for relational database design by the third grade, after all.

The Task Switching test was harder than I thought! I had trouble remembering what I was supposed to be looking for, not whether or not it was odd/even/vowel/consonant. It was easier when the number was even and the letter was a vowel and vice versa, of course. But when they mixed them up, I sometimes remembered that I had forgot what to look for!!! Still, like you, I was much better than the two groups, so I have no idea which one I belong in. I just hope neither group charges dues... I also was slower than either group, I think that's what my red bar below the line means. I suppose those slower times reflect my stupidity in remembering the last thin I saw on-screen just a split-second ago! Next time, I think I'll use one hand to indicate 'number' or 'letter' and the other to hit the correct arrow key! Does learning from my mistakes ghet iny eckstra powents?

[kimmer]

Really interesting articles. The comment "I don't read books any more" (found in the "Is Google making us stupid?" article) confirms what we hear in the library. I also found it interesting that we decode written bytes and skim read news sites on the web. This is especially scary since our local news is now more "stuff and fluff" (TV stations buy news from sources, rather than really go report local news -- and yes, I can document this when I have time). So that tells me that our grasp of what is really happening in the world is even more limited than I thought it was. Sad.

The article about the family -- my personal feeling is that they need an intervention. Seriously. They don't interact. They don't communicate. They really don't have a bond of any kind. Instead of they have moments together playing with electronic gadgets. Big deal. If this is the family of the future, we are all in trouble.

I aced both the focus test and the task switching test. Both reminded me of the eye tests I take every year.

The more I read this stuff, the more convinced I am that I don't need -- or want -- a Kindle or any other ereader.

Anyhow, I think I'll go curl up with a BOOK. One with paper pages and covers and that I hold in my hand and READ and it's thick and interesting and makes me think and tells me a story - not snippets of thoughts.

[Jack W]

Kim,

You really have your head on straight!

- Jack

[gunug]

I mentioned this article in a thread that I had put up ("iPad, but you can call it AL!"); however, it probably doesn't have much to do with the topic so it shouldn't be merged!