Is Google Making Us Stupid?

[johneek]

This may not be the most appropriate place for this thread, but there's clearly a relationship between it and the idea of an on-line community actually meeting face to face.

I ran across the following which you can (ironically as you shall see) read on-line. I thought it was a fascinating article and wondered if any of you have had experiences similar to those of the author (I certainly have). For those of you who can't make it through the article, your answer to the above query is, "Yes." Enjoy....I hope.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

[johnallg]

Our resident curmudgeon here at work has said, "Computers will be the downfall of man." Sounds like a synopsis of the article. I dunno, I still fully immerse in the imagery and plot of the books I read, but then I'm choosy who I give my time to. I can tell how good a movie is by if I am no longer aware of being in the theater but become one with the movie. I guess it all depends on what you "feed your head."

[johneek]

Interesting points John. I don't think computers will be the downfall of man (I guess I need to keep watching Battlestar Galactica to find out) but I think it's more a matter of what the medium communicates other than information. This is why watching a film is a dramatically different experience than reading the book that it was based on, why reading poetry is different than reading a short story. or why being told a story is different than reading it.

I wonder what our Gen Y guys (and girls) would say about this. I imagine that their perspective is different than many of us. I do think differently than I did even 5 years ago (It's not Alzheimers...I hope), but I don't know if this is the result of a different medium and what is inherently communicated within it or me dealing with a change in medium (something Gen Y folks probably wouldn't struggle with). It's really a fascinating topic....at least to me. We'll see if this thread dies a quick death.

[charlyg]

I have always said my education taught me where and how, to find information, not how to memorize it. This just saves me a ton of time. Still an avid reader too!

[dr_bob]

Hey John, great post and excellent article.

There is a significant amount of research on this very topic being done in my discipline -- Communication. Some researchers (dating back to McCluhan and Ong in the sixties who said it was the medium not the message that is important) believe that the primary medium/media through which we experience the world shapes our minds and the way we think, learn, and store information. Since the onset of time we have been moving from a very linear structure based on one-to-one, face-to-face communication to a more mosaic structure (holistic pictures/images generated by a technology, as opposed to the person in front of us, moving at ever increasing hyper speeds) to process information.

According to these researchers the various cohorts (matures, early baby boomers, late baby boomers, gen X, gen Y, etc), therefore, really do process the world differently and also learn differently. The scary thing is that as technology accelerates these cohorts get shorter and shorter in time duration. Kids 12 to 15 are very different than college students who arguably are different than gen Yers. I currently work with a number of organizations in trying to help them understand how to more effectively create messages that will appeal to their changing workforce and customer base.

[jimk]

OK, I didn't make it through the article. If I thought it were important, I'd have printed it out, gone out to the front porch with a nice cold summer beverage, my pipe, and settled back to read something interesting.

JimK

[dr_bob]

One man's pleasure is another man's pain

[johneek]

...I currently work with a number of organizations in trying to help them understand how to more effectively create messages that will appeal to their changing workforce and customer base.

Considering the speed at which information is presented or processed, and the rate at which the audience must adapt, your work must be a challenge to say the least. Do you find that the "shelf life" of these messages decreases at an increased rate?

It's not that I can't process the information quickly; I can....at least for the time being , but I find that when I'm forced to do so, my ability to see and appreciate nuance and subtlety starts to fade.

[johnallg]

...I currently work with a number of organizations in trying to help them understand how to more effectively create messages that will appeal to their changing workforce and customer base.

Considering the speed at which information is presented or processed, and the rate at which the audience must adapt, your work must be a challenge to say the least. Do you find that the "shelf life" of these messages decreases at an increased rate?

It's not that I can't process the information quickly; I can....at least for the time being , but I find that when I'm forced to do so, my ability to see and appreciate nuance and subtlety starts to fade.

But you didn't grow up on educational television (starting with School House Rock) and video games, John. It is amazing how fast these kids can react and push multiple button sequences to make a move or capture an enemy or prize. It is beyond me and more than I want to put into a diversion. I also do bad at Guitar Hero because I want to play the song and not hit the right keys at the exact moment a color rolls past a point. To me its totally different than playing an instrument and a whole lot more mechanical.

[dr_bob]

Hey guys -- it appears that we're the only three folks interested in this topic

One thing that we know is that when MOST baby boomers claim to multitask what they are really doing is working on several projects within an expanded time frame (let's say a day), but at any one moment in time their attention is primarily on a single task. Many Gen Yers actually polytask. They can do multiple complex tasks at the same time as in John A's example. These controllers on games are in part responsible for this shift in capabilities.

Also we know that the attention span of Gen Xers is much less than that of a baby boomer. Just look at newscasts. The news segments are getting shorter and shorter in order to hold audience attention. More stories, shorter duration appeals to the Gen Xers. Much of this started with MTV and is now being accelerated with YTube.

And yes, the shelf life of messages and strategies for sending messages is getting shorter and shorter. Message strategies (including channels, technology, and content) are in constant need of reassessment. Thank goodness -- the rapid change helps keep me in guitar money!!

[johneek]

Hey guys -- it appears that we're the only three folks interested in this topic

One thing that we know is that when MOST baby boomers claim to multitask what they are really doing is working on several projects within an expanded time frame (let's say a day), but at any one moment in time their attention is primarily on a single task. Many Gen Yers actually polytask. They can do multiple complex tasks at the same time as in John A's example. These controllers on games are in part responsible for this shift in capabilities......And yes, the shelf life of messages and strategies for sending messages is getting shorter and shorter. Message strategies (including channels, technology, and content) are in constant need of reassessment. Thank goodness -- the rapid change helps keep me in guitar money!!

I guess I'm both surprised and not surprised at the fact that very few people have chimed in. The low number of posters is about what I expected, but the fact that (as of this moment) the thread has been viewed only 72 times is a bit surprising. I guess I need some messaging lessons from you Bob

I am thankful for the Guitar money part! However, like John I just don't get...or enjoy Guitar Hero. I never want to sound like (or be) a grumpy old man, but the difference between playing Guitar Hero and playing the guitar seems to be what the article was pointing to at the end. I guess one of the questions I have is what effect poly-tasking has on the more subjective side of things, like an appreciation for beauty and tone. When you compare the thinking patterns of boomers and Gen Yers, is there a parallel in anyway between the analog and digital worlds?

[johnallg]

John, as to the polytasking and its affect on beauty and appreciation, how about the thread with links to the girl that plays whole group songs on the midi keys? One was Kansas and I can't recall what the first vid was, but she displays those qualities in spades while polytasking.

[jdogric12]

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Whoa. Sorry I didn't post yet... just woke up from a very loooong nap. I saw this right when it was posted yesterday and meant to reply but hadn't yet. I tried reading the article but couldn't simply because I was at work and didn't have enough time to devote to a complete read and reply.

I have definitely noticed a change. I've never been a great reader. I'm more of a math guy. I've got an attention span like a son of a b. thanks to long hours of sitting in the corner at daycare after misbehaving. So spending some time reading is not so bad for me, at least the time part. The reading is another story!

I am definitely much more impatient than I was, say, five to ten years ago. In high school I did read a few books that were NOT on the assigned list, but now I never read any books or things like that. I suppose it's because I've gone and got myself in a big dang hurry with work and trying to make a few bucks on the side so I can buy more Ricks, etc etc.

When that little hour glass appears for more than five seconds I start to get ****** off, and have to remember that it's a heck of a lot quicker than it was five or ten years ago. I remember sitting in the university computer lab in the mid nineties, trying to find something to occupy my time while the pics on Mike Parks' page loaded up!

There is no doubt things are changing, and changing quicker than ever before, but that's always the case with history, isn't it?

I best liked the bits about 2001. I've always enjoyed losing my own mind thinking about interpretations of that film. One of my fav's.

Thanks John for posting that, sorry I was a little late to the party.

Also, I was born in '78. What generation am I? I seriously have no idea. I think I'm "Y" but don't know.

[johneek]

....Also, I was born in '78. What generation am I? I seriously have no idea. I think I'm "Y" but don't know.

JDog...you are Generation Cool...no doubt about it

[johneek]

John, as to the polytasking and its affect on beauty and appreciation, how about the thread with links to the girl that plays whole group songs on the midi keys? One was Kansas and I can't recall what the first vid was, but she displays those qualities in spades while polytasking.

John, I must have missed that entirely. Do you have a hint or two on what's the best way to search for it?