As a society today in 21st century America, humans are becoming more and more like the smartphones they carry around in their pockets, and the computers that lay dormant in backpacks as they shuffle from class to class or ride the subway to work. Technology is becoming more and more of a predominant factor in our every day lives. Think about it. We use technology everywhere, whether it be in school, at work, at home, or even in the car. In Richard Restak’s Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era and Bill Wasik’s My Crowd Experiment: The Mob Project we learn that although technology can have some positive effects, it is also turning us into machines. According to a new study, children born today will spend an average of about 25% of
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He believes that this increase in multitasking has evolved from the increase in technology all around us. Restak states that: “In response to this media torrent, the brain has had to make fundamental adjustments. The demarcation between here and elsewhere has become blurred. Thanks to technology, each of us exists simultaneously in not just here but in several” (Restak 418).
This quote from Restak proves the point that technology has made it so that we are able to focus our attention on numerous different things at one time, and essentially be in multiple different places at once. However, multitasking is not nearly as efficient as we perceive it to be. Restak …show more content…
At this rate, the epidemic is only going to become worse, so think about it the next time you see someone completely zoned out on their cell-phone or mindlessly staring at a screen. Bill Wasik, Author of And Then Theres This, is credited with inventing the flash mob for the simple reason that he was bored. He decided that he wanted to use e-mail to get people to come together and form some sort of show where “the point of the show would be no show at all” (Wasik 516). Little did he know however, that his flash mobs would come to an end for that same reason — boredom. He states: “I wrote of boredom as inspiring the mob’s birth; but I suspect that boredom helped to hasten its death, as well — the boredom, that is, of the constantly distracted mind” (Wasik 527).
This “constantly distracted mind” has only become worse due to the fast paced world in which we live. A perfect example of this comes from Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, she found
He believes that this increase in multitasking has evolved from the increase in technology all around us. Restak states that: “In response to this media torrent, the brain has had to make fundamental adjustments. The demarcation between here and elsewhere has become blurred. Thanks to technology, each of us exists simultaneously in not just here but in several” (Restak 418).
This quote from Restak proves the point that technology has made it so that we are able to focus our attention on numerous different things at one time, and essentially be in multiple different places at once. However, multitasking is not nearly as efficient as we perceive it to be. Restak …show more content…
At this rate, the epidemic is only going to become worse, so think about it the next time you see someone completely zoned out on their cell-phone or mindlessly staring at a screen. Bill Wasik, Author of And Then Theres This, is credited with inventing the flash mob for the simple reason that he was bored. He decided that he wanted to use e-mail to get people to come together and form some sort of show where “the point of the show would be no show at all” (Wasik 516). Little did he know however, that his flash mobs would come to an end for that same reason — boredom. He states: “I wrote of boredom as inspiring the mob’s birth; but I suspect that boredom helped to hasten its death, as well — the boredom, that is, of the constantly distracted mind” (Wasik 527).
This “constantly distracted mind” has only become worse due to the fast paced world in which we live. A perfect example of this comes from Gloria Mark, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, she found