I read this article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=technology) and found it more than a bit interesting.
When people ask me why i don[t have an iPhone or a Blackberry, or why, as a musician, I don't have an iPod or some other MP3 player drilling music into my brain at all times, I simply say that Ii need some time away. Now, at least I have some corroboration as to why I think that way.
I was attending a conference with some Penn State colleagues, each of whom had a iPhone and was checking seemingly constantly. We were sitting at a open session, just prior to a meal, and they were all diligently checking email, or texting or doing something on the device. I found the scene somewhat funny, but also perplexing. Do we really need to be that connected? Do we really need to always be "working"?
I asked the group how they felt that their lives had changed with the advent of using the device. They felt "more connected". It gave them "more time". It helped them to "organize the mass of information and tasks" that they had to attend to. Still, I just thought that being alone from time to time, in order to reflect and think about things, was a good thing. I still think that.
On m y daily commute (3 hours round trip), some days I listen to the radio, or a CD, and some days I just tune everything out and veg - thinking about the day ahead or behind, or contemplating what the coming week or weekend will hold. It's quite refreshing to tell you the truth.
Now, I don't begrudge anyone who has or uses any of these devices. For them, it fits into what they want to do and the level of access and connectivity that they want to have. That's great - for them. But not for me.
Allow me to explore a couple of quotes from the article:
- "Almost certainly, downtime lets the brain go over experiences it's had, solidify them and turn them into permanent long-term memories," said Loren Frank, assistant professor in the department of physiology at the university (University of California, San Francisco), where he specializes in learning and memory. He said he believed that when the brain was constantly stimulated, "you prevent this learning process."
I have always been a believer in giving the mind a chance to process all of the stimulus that we have thrown at us. I see this with one of my sons, who can't absorb continuous input from different sources. When he concentrates on one thing, and really gives himself time to digest it and put it away in memory, he has near perfect recall. I think that's great!
- At the University of Michigan, a study found that people learned significantly better after a walk in nature than after a walk in a dense urban environment, suggesting that processing a barrage of information leaves people fatigued.
Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say.
"People think they're refreshing themselves, but they're fatiguing themselves," said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist.
Those stolen moments are good sometimes, specially between meetings or other functions, but how many times have we seen people (or ourselves) checking email when we just checked it 5 minutes ago - or checking/entering our Facebook status - or . . . well, you get the idea. I like to have those little moments, those 2-3 minutes gaps to watch things . . . people, birds, cars, things in general. It relaxes me and I really do feel a bit more refreshed.
So, I guess that I'll never be a part of the millennial age, since I don't fill every waking (and even some non-waking) moment with something electronic. Call me old-fahsioned - at least, old fashioned in a short term sense.
What do you think?
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