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…it’s because the brain is amazing! Researchers have learned that the human brain-“
Yes, thank you, very widely distributed Facebook post, for reminding me that my brain is a wonderfully complex organ that allows me to do both the simplest and most intricate tasks. Now, what was it that I was doing again?
I find myself asking that question much more often than I want to, particularly when the answer is “oh right, that financial data for my boss” or “oh crap, I have a blog post due in one hour.” And yet, I keep doing it anyway. Well, I won’t let myself get too distracted this time. Yeah, sure Steph. Einstein himself said that the definition of insanity is repeating the same action, hoping for a different result each time. I know better and should actively be trying to do better.
So why is this vicious cycle so addicting? One can easily point at the technologies of today and place the blame on them. There are so many things, technology-wise, demanding our attention or in some cases, taunting us. As I sit here at my desk in my room, I can easily identify several things in just my eye line alone: my phone face up next to me, the several tabs open in Chrome (Blackboard, car insurance quotes, email, etc.), and my Nintendo Switch that if I listen closely I can hear it say “Just take a 5-minute break and watch the fireworks show with your Animal Crossing villagers.”
Some recent studies have uncovered some crucial yet unsurprising findings on the effect technology has on our intellectual facilities. In the 2018 article entitled “Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking,” an experiment was conducted on whether having your phone near you causes a negative effect on cerebral processing. Several tests were done to measure cognitive capacity in order to develop a baseline. The group was then split by 3 interventions: keeping their phones face down in front of them, leaving their phone in their pocket, or leaving their phone in another room.
You can take a wild, accurate guess as to what the results unveiled, from best to worst performing:
Phone in another room
Phone in pocket
Phone face down in front of them
The study went further to test if having the phone turned off while face down in front affects our cognitive abilities. And this is where the shock comes in: it still does.
“Research in cognitive psychology shows that humans learn to automatically pay attention to things that are habitually relevant to them, even when they’re focused on a different task. For example, even if we are actively engaged in a conversation, we will turn our heads when someone says our name across the room. Similarly, parents automatically attend to the sight or sound of a baby’s cry.” (Duke, 2018)
This resonated with me because essentially, we see our phones as something that is equally as pleasing as connections with humans. In a sense, that’s correct, it does connect us with other people. It is not however a person in the human flesh, with their own personality and intellect. We are holding a mechanical tool to the same level as our emotional connection with each other. Something about that doesn’t sit well with me, and it reminds me somewhat of Battlestar Galactica.
Now that we know this, what are we doing to refocus? Can it even be done, or are we too far gone? An even more crucial question is, do we care?
References:
Duke, Kristin. (2018, June 14). Having Your Smartphone Nearby Takes a Toll on Your Thinking (Even When It’s Silent and Facedown). Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/03/having-your-smartphone-nearby-takes-a-toll-on-your-thinking
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