CogBlog 4: Attention

I grew up in the generation that had a half and half childhood. We grew up having to entertain ourselves with both the outdoors and the constantly evolving technology of the world. As I grew up, the bounds in technology in the terms of computers, cell phones, AI, video game systems and other technology based advances were being made. I remember watching as using the internet involved cutting off the functioning of the phones in the house thanks to dial up (and causing a lot of yelling from my parents about it) to it being virtually everywhere we go at the use of a router and a password. Technology has helped create better ways of treating illnesses, working more efficiently in both office and blue collar settings, education, television, video games and movies and how we get news and information about what's going on in the world around us.

Along with the advances in technology, there have also been a fair share of cognition-related issues with it. Personally I believe that technology is a double-edged sword when talking about cognition. On one hand, there have been major developments in using technology to not only learn better but there are programs out there that are designed to help people strengthen their cognition. Whether they are online classes, tests or brain games like Luminosity, there are technology based creations out there designed to help people improve cognition in some way. The technology evolution has also benefited the medical world, giving us better and more efficient techniques and tests that involve using or testing cognition. Some of these breakthroughs include concussion tests, vision and hearing tests and the development of different body/brain scans that have helped shed light on how our bodies function in many ways well past just cognition.

On the other and, some technology has become a bigger hindrance in parts of cognition like attention. In this modern era of many people owning personal cell phones and TV’s in every room, I think it has become harder to use the skill of attention. It’s harder to pay attention to what is going on around you when you have a movie playing in the background or your phone that’s connected to the internet is in arm's reach. So many people are so obsessed with using their personal technology devices that they fail to notice what is happening in the world around them. Students on their phones miss parts of their classes or are constantly using them while doing homework or studying which could affect their grades and knowledge base. Someone walking down the street while looking at their phone isn't fully paying attention to what is in front of them and they could very well walk into something or have someone hit them on accident from their obliviousness and divided attention. Someone who decided to text and drive is committing an extremely hazardous behavior by taking their eyes off the road which could cause an accident from the divided attention of the phone and their surroundings.

I'm not a fan of texting and driving. I get upset and paranoid when I'm in a car with a driver who uses their phone at the wheel.

What has happened in the evolution of technology that has caused cell phones and other mobile devices to become such large beacons of  attention that those using them forget to actually pay attention to what is around them? I think much of it has to do with the multiple types of social media that we have access to today. Depending on who you ask, the creation of social media is one of the best or worst things to befall our society. While they allow us to literally talk to people all over the world, they have shown to be very addicting and people can spend disproportionate amounts of time on them. There are social media accounts for everything these days from networking with employers and friends to looking for relationships and hookups on a Friday night. Especially in my age group and younger, I've noticed how much of a distraction these apps can cause in students when they are trying to study or when they are talking to someone else at the same time. Their attention becomes transfixed on the social media post they are on and whatever is going on in the background becomes secondary to them.

This constant divided attention can have overall negative effects on a person because you aren’t fully taking in your whole environment. When you divide your attention between multiple things, you won't be able to attend to them each as easily versus if you focused on one thing at a time. It’s this distracted behavior that is so problematic to people who are glued to social media, or technology in general. Its very easy to miss something when you aren't directly focused on it. You could have read a chapter in detail that would help you give a good response to that essay question on your upcoming test, but instead you briefly skimmed over a section in the textbook because you wanted to see what your favorite celebrity just posted on Facebook. Or someone might be asking you an important question and you either don't register what they said or give a simple “uh huh” because you are checking how many likes you got on your last post (which depending on the situation could be very offensive and show a lack of care to the other person).

I’ll admit that sometimes it's hard to balance the two out. I catch myself rationing out study time versus checking my phone (read one chapter for five minutes of phone time for example) so sometimes I have to remove my phone completely when I know I have to get stuff done so my attention is kept on the material I need to to be focused on. But I don’t feel like everyone else tries to utilize some kind of technique to help them pay attention. It has become such a norm in modern society to be glued to our electronics that some people actually undergo extreme stress when separated from their phones for too long. I believe that because technology has become so prevalent in our lives that the disconnection of attention it causes has slipped under the radar due to it being considered “a norm” by some. This is a bad habit to have for proper working cognition (not to mention general life skills) and I feel that over time it’s just going to get worse unless there is another interference from technology itself. Technology is causing this issue in attention, so it would make sense if it was the only thing that could stand a chance at trying to reverse it.

Technology isn't everything. Use it wisely.