|
I'm with ART on this one - help or hurt depends on the context, but I don't think it's at all in doubt that digital media have absolutely changed the cognitive landscape of several generations. Computers, the internet, video games, television, telphones, cell phones, etc., one thing they all have in common is the transportation of the consciousness outside its physical setting. They "split the self" so to speak, and I don't think it's any coincidence that we're seeing the rise of learning "disorders" like ADD at the same time. (I put disorders in quotes because I don't think it really is necessarily a disorder, it's just a paradigm shift in the social and educational milieu that institutions haven't adapted to yet.) I find it amazingly difficult to do one thing at a time. Sometimes this is a hindrance, like when I am required to focus on a task for a period of time; but sometimes it's a huge help, like when I'm at work in a meeting and I need to keep one ear on the conversation so I can help steer the agenda and then later capture the essence of things in my report, and one part of my brain on the logistics of the meeting - is the room temperature okay, do we need more coffee, has the staff changed so-and-so's room reservation yet, etc. The amazement of the participants in the meeting that I can do this has less to do, IMHO, with my particular abilities and more to do with the fact that they're all at least 20 years older than I am and their brains don't work like that.
I can think of a number of other examples, but I don't think we've yet seen the tip of the iceberg in terms of how digital media - think wireless, AIM technology, bluetooth, wearable computers - are going to change the experience of being human.
__________________
"If ten million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."
- Anatole France
|