ok, well this article is quite interesting. it's called "is the internet destroying your brain?" and is complete with games (via NY Times) to test how easily you're distracted and how good you are at switching between tasks.
and...my results are in.
1- i was able to focus on the first test and not get distracted easily (my score was about the same as a low-multitasker's). so this means i can hold lots of information in my short-term memory. (oh! so that's how i do well in school...).
2- i am almost hesitant to expound on the results of the second test. okok, i was embarassingly slow. i was slower than the low-multitasker AND the high-multitasker, and by a large margin, too. i was significantly slower than all average people in switching tasks. i was also slower in completing tasks even when they were the same. yikes!
so has the internet destroyed my brain? i think it's pretty safe to say...it has.
but really, i have to be rational. maybe these tests don't really prove anything. and maybe the internet hasn't fried my egg like those brain-on-drugs commercials. but i do feel a difference in my thoughts on days when i spend a lot of time on the internet vs. those days i don't. when i do my thoughts are more jumpy, i do have a harder time concentrating, and i'm more apathetic, generally. so regardless of this test...i know that for my own health i've got to regulate my internet usage more carefully or it will make me a crazy person.
so...did you take the tests? what do the tests say? has your brain been warped by our multitasking lifestyle as well? and putting those tests aside, how do you feel the internet and multi-tasking in general affects your life?
1 comment:
I rocked that first test. (I think cramming might be a skill I should put on my resume.) The second was pathetic. And it made my head hurt. I am a horrible multi-tasker so I've been pretty good about sticking to one thing at a time except the reading and eating thing. I'm guilty as charged.
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