Technology: Taking Over the Way We Learn

Many years ago, there were no computers, or televisions, or cell phones that people could waste their time on. Instead, kids would play outside with other kids in the neighborhood, play board games inside and if they were bored, they could always pick up a book to read. When it came time to do homework, there were no distractions, such as Facebook or a constantly buzzing cell phone. Kids would just sit down at a desk, finish their homework, and then be free to play or relax for the rest of the night. However, in today’s day and age, distractions are all around us. Whether it be Facebook, or other websites, or television shows and movies, it is very easy to drag a 30-minute homework assignment into a 2-hour ordeal. I believe technology has not only affected how quickly assignments get done, but also the overall attention span of today’s generations.
I know for me personally, whenever I open up my laptop to start an assignment, the first thing I do is check Facebook. After I waste about 20 minutes doing that, I check my email, and then back to Facebook again. So a half an hour after I sat down, I am finally starting to do my homework. However, while I’m doing my homework, I’m also on Facebook chat catching up with my friend from home, and also texting my hall mate about dinner plans later on. Two hours after I sit down, I’m finally done with a 500-word response that should have taken an hour at most. However, with all of these distractions, it’s hard to stay focused, and it ends up taking a lot longer than an hour.
Not only has technology served as a good distraction method, but there have also been studies that prove that younger generations (the ones who grew up with all this technology) actually do have shorter attention spans. They don’t stay on the same website for more than a couple of minutes on average and they’re constantly starting up new tasks without fully completely other ones. Also, it’s gotten to the point where students actually understand the information better if it’s given to them through the computer, rather than a traditional paperback book.
With all of this reliance on I technology, I really believe generations will get dumber and dumber. If you think about it, people no longer have to go look up information in books from the library anymore; there’s Google for that. There’s no longer a need for maps; we now have GPS’s. Technology is not only enabling us to become extremely lazy, but as I mentioned before, much more A.D.D. When someone is texting 2 people, Facebook chatting another, having a conversation with someone else in the room AND trying to write a paper; there is not way their full attention is on any of those tasks and because of that, each person, or task, is cut short.
Now I realize that this shift towards technology is inevitable, and now that we’re in it there’s no turning back. But I encourage people to really try and make a conscious effort to only do one task at a time and really give it your full attention. Whether that task is finishing math homework, or skyping your mom; do only that task with your full attention and I’m willing to bet it gets done not only faster, but also with higher quality.