- Apr 28, 2009
- 33,347
- 15,147
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google/
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/05/internet-causes-add-attention-deficit.html
"This is a psychology problem not a philosophy problem. The reason our brains are tuned to let these distractions in is that in the wild, we needed to bealert to small things we would want to avoid or eat. These same mechanisms start going haywire when overstimulated by the internet. Each interesting farkarticle or cool twitter you find is almost indistinguishable from a hit of cocaine, seeing a mountain lion if you are on a walk, or a pulse of electricity upthe vargas nerve.
The best way for otherwise healthy people (who exercise) to solve attention problems is by practicing meditation. I don't have the mental energy to listall the details right here (got 87 tabs and 14 emails to get too!) but all the brain research shows heavy meditators have sizable differences to controls inthe areas of their brains that control attention. These areas are measurably thicker in meditating people. This same area is responsible for focusing attentionwhen a distraction is present.
Only by recognizing the specific neurological mechanisms underlying the phenomenon, which are known, can we accurately discuss this problem and offer peoplesuffering from it a solution.
You could say, justified by the science: the internet as it appears today causes ADD like symptoms because it overstimulates the areas of our brain that ourancestors used to select threats and rewards from the environment. Meditation will counteract the pseudo-ADD effects of the internet by permanentlystrengthening and thickening the areas of the brain that inhibit the overstimulated parts of the brain."
I've been feeling this way myself for maybe a year or two, to the point where it's almost impossible for me to remember any information i study forquizzes or tests anymore because i guess the information doesn't seem interesting to me anymore. I talked about this EXACT subject just the other day withmy dad and I thought i was the only one that felt this way. Does anybody else on here feel this way lately?
http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2008/05/internet-causes-add-attention-deficit.html
"This is a psychology problem not a philosophy problem. The reason our brains are tuned to let these distractions in is that in the wild, we needed to bealert to small things we would want to avoid or eat. These same mechanisms start going haywire when overstimulated by the internet. Each interesting farkarticle or cool twitter you find is almost indistinguishable from a hit of cocaine, seeing a mountain lion if you are on a walk, or a pulse of electricity upthe vargas nerve.
The best way for otherwise healthy people (who exercise) to solve attention problems is by practicing meditation. I don't have the mental energy to listall the details right here (got 87 tabs and 14 emails to get too!) but all the brain research shows heavy meditators have sizable differences to controls inthe areas of their brains that control attention. These areas are measurably thicker in meditating people. This same area is responsible for focusing attentionwhen a distraction is present.
Only by recognizing the specific neurological mechanisms underlying the phenomenon, which are known, can we accurately discuss this problem and offer peoplesuffering from it a solution.
You could say, justified by the science: the internet as it appears today causes ADD like symptoms because it overstimulates the areas of our brain that ourancestors used to select threats and rewards from the environment. Meditation will counteract the pseudo-ADD effects of the internet by permanentlystrengthening and thickening the areas of the brain that inhibit the overstimulated parts of the brain."
I've been feeling this way myself for maybe a year or two, to the point where it's almost impossible for me to remember any information i study forquizzes or tests anymore because i guess the information doesn't seem interesting to me anymore. I talked about this EXACT subject just the other day withmy dad and I thought i was the only one that felt this way. Does anybody else on here feel this way lately?
