I Have Nine Tabs Open in Chrome & Four in Firefox

I'm Multitasking Right Now

There have been critics of technological advancements since man first learned how to write. However, it is a mistake to focus solely on the drawbacks of a new technology and not appreciate the many benefits we receive. Our current generation of youngsters will learn how to "swipe-to-unlock" an iPhone or iPad before the age of two. It is also likely that these children will learn how to count and how to say the alphabet earlier than previous generations thanks to games and "apps." Though there are already some unfortunate consequences of our current technological boom, we have to remember that throughout history, mankind has always adapted to new technology.

One popular argument against our current "always connected" culture is that people have a shorter attention span now more than ever. In Breaking Down Borders Robert Samuels says, "Some critics of new communication technologies argue that cell phones, laptops, iPods, and the other devices we take with us throughout the day encourage a high level of multitasking and prevent us from concentrating on any single activity." Kalle Lasn also mentions in his book Culture Jam that he knew a young man that, thanks to the Internet, now only "…skims a sentence. Looks at a bit of this and a bit of that. He absorbs everything, but not deeply." A Stanford study, as seen on a Frontline documentary, tells us this kind of multitasking hurts us academically. When college kids are talking to friends via instant messenger, texting someone else, emailing another person, and trying to write a paper, their grade suffers. Their thoughts are not completely focused on the singular task of finishing a paper.  Having all of these devices at our disposal at all times does indeed result in a shorter attention span and some difficulty with maintaining linear thoughts.

Apple gadgets and laptops aren't all bad news, though. As schools begin to adjust their teaching methods to accommodate the younger generations' always-connected lifestyle, test scores are going up, as reported on Frontline. Schools are seeing higher attendance and reporting less incidents of violence since implementing computers into the classroom. One educator says of the new high-tech curriculums, "School makes more sense to the kids." Children need to be fluent with computers and communication with future jobs, so it completely makes sense that they learn how to work with computers from a young age and in the classroom.

Most of the critics of current technological advancements grew up in a different time and think differently than the younger generations. Thus they cannot fully assume to know the outcome of our future generations. Neil Postman says in his article The Judgment of Thamus, "If it makes sense to us, that is because our minds have been conditioned by the technology of numbers so that we see the world differently than they did. Our understanding of what is real is different." He was referencing the old technological advancement of assigning grades to a student's quality of work. However this statement holds true of any major change that we see throughout time, from writing to television to now. Postman describes Thamus' early fear of writing, "…writing will damage memory and create false wisdom." Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, man criticized the television generation. In the film Network from 1976, Max, a middle-aged man, says of his younger colleague that her generation doesn't know how to experience life or show simple human decency because the only things they learn of life come from the television. In similar words, Kalle Lasn says "netheads" will likely become "incapable of experiencing the emotions that life ought to evoke." But again, these are old men that do not think in the same manner as our younger generations. The younger generations, have grown up connected to computers, and we see the world differently than those old geezers.

Historically speaking, whenever man has been confronted by a new, challenging technology, we have always adapted. It would be naïve to think that children growing up with computers and iPads are going to somehow fail in life. They may in fact turn out to be more successful than previous generations. I am jealous of children that can recite their ABCs at age two. When I was that age, I was eating dirt and bugs. Technological advancements can't be all that bad, can they?