Are you overloaded with stimuli? Do you feel less reflective and more impulsive?
Our Changing Brains
According to Nicholas Carr in his updated book, The Shallows, the way we communicate is changing our brains. Both the mediums we use to receive information and the tools we use to send messages are having a major impact on the way our brain works. It changes us as individuals and as a society.
Benefits vs Costs
The benefits of having unlimited information sources in our pockets at all times is invaluable. But the cost of over stimulation is something to worth considering, Focus, retention, deep understanding, even the ability to think critically may be at stake.
Self Assessment
Can you focus long enough to read an article? When is the last time you sat quietly and read a chapter in a book without distractions? What was the last book you finished?
Is Reading A Lost Art?
The jury is out whether book reading is even relevant anymore. Maybe having the facts you need pulled out in short paragraphs and retrievable across the web is all we need. But who is doing the thinking, who is contemplating the paragraphs, who have we left the wealth of knowledge up to. And what good are the bits of knowledge if you can’t retain it long enough to consider it deeply before the next bit comes in and overwrites it.
KUDOS
Comment below if you read this far and give yourself two bits of kudos for finishing.