Digital Nation/Distracted by Everything

Amber Lindsey

Reading/Viewing Response #4

05/04/2010

Digital Nation

I really enjoyed this entire video. Initially, I was concerned about the length and it being able to keep my attention. 90 minutes is a long time! Rachel Dretzin(sp?) and Douglas Rushcoff(sp?) worked together very well as a team, they represent opposite types of people. She is the working mom, while he is an internet guru. I could really relate to Rachel’s life, not realizing until it’s really too late that we’ve encouraged the constant presence of electronics in our home. There is some form of electronic entertainment in every major room of our home. Too many cell phones, 4 tvs, 3 desktops, 2 Ipods in Ihomes and 1 laptop. As Rachel said, we are all in the same home together, we just aren’t together.

The segment ‘Distracted by Everything’ was a great snapshot of how many of us are functioning. The idea of doing one thing at a time, or maybe doing absolutely nothing would be such a struggle for the kids they showed. Why is it so important that they have to know the instant someone emails them and they must reply instantly?

I think the testing that is being done at Stanford, in Palo Alto, California, by Professor Clifford Nass and his team is extremely important. Brian is a student who in truth felt he could multitask effectively. He gives us the laundry list of what he’s doing all the time, ending his list with “so that I can always stay connected”. I wonder what he fears will happen if he’s not connected for a period of time. In his brief time on screen, I could easily say he’s addicted. He was in a bit of disbelief when his result came back that he in reality had very low results.

We’ve all heard that employers want to hire associates that are good at multitasking. Isn’t it the same as with the students? When you’re in the moment of multitasking, you’re not really doing anything 100%. Clifford mentions that classic psychology says multitasking doesn’t really exist, it’s physically impossible to do more than one thing at a time. Our brains can’t do two things at one time. His concern is that “we are creating people who are unable to think well and clearly”. One of our students made the comment last week that “the youth of America is the future”, for their sake, I hope they are able to think clearly!