I haven’t read the book, but in The Shallows Nicholas Carr argues that the internet is ruining our brains for deep contemplation. He worries especially what it’s doing to the minds of our youth. My experience is most people have never been great ones for deep contemplation, and for those of us who love to ponder ideas the internet is a blessing not a curse. It just gives us more information to fit into our mental picture.
I’ve always liked to play with ideas and have never had problems with concentrating…tuning out distractions. I still remember when I was a teen studying my Spanish homework and boiling some eggs my mother wanted to include in our dinner. Just before my mother came home from work I noticed this horrible smell—hydrogen sulfide from burned eggs. Oh dear. I shut off the stove and tried to air out the kitchen but of course it was hopeless. When my mother walked in the door she yelled, “How could you not have noticed!” I was concentrating, of course.
What can I say? My poor mother wasn’t nearly as enamored of focused attention as Carr seems to be. 🙂
What about you? Do you think the internet is distracting or does it give your life more depth?
You & my husband. But since he’s semi-retired, I’ve made it clear that when I’m talking at him at his computer or book, he’d better see that “I exist”.
I notice on the trails & sidewalks that the woman is always talking & the husband listening? really?
On the trail I saw a couple heading toward me. She was talking up a blue streak. When they got to me I said,”Wives talk, but husbands don’t listen.” She said, “What?” I repeated it & added, “it’s universal”. She said, “Well, yes”. Her husband glared at me.
bikehikebabe,
Andy and I will both interrupt what we’re doing to listen to the other. But we’re both respectful of the other person’s need to focus and don’t overdo the interruptions.
PS I assume you agree with my mother rather than Carr: concentration is overrated? 🙂
Jean, with respect, concentrating does not mean being oblivious to everything else going on around us. How else would we avoid burning the house down (your eggs), bring up a child, keep human relationships intact if we weren’t alert to that unrelated to our current task in hand?
The real art of concentration is to let yourself be interrupted (preferrably without getting irritated), pay attention (ie concentrate) and then pick up where you left off without having lost your threat.
U
PS As to your question whether the internet is a distraction or gives life more depth: Providing you know how to concentrate (insert grinning smiley) the internet is not much of a distraction; does it give my life more depth? No.
Make my ‘threat’ a thread (as in needle) – clearly lost concentration; or maybe it was a Freudian.
U
Ursula,
Yes, there are degrees of concentration. My mother and bikehikebabe rightly think one can get carried away.
I think it is characterised by information that is for immediate use or relevance. This suits me pretty well.
But I don’t go to the internet for detailed historical surveys or things like that. For this I stick with books and haven’t found anything on the net to replace them.
As you will no doubt recall, I spend an hour every morning, well before daylight on deep contemplation as you call it here. I also spend about three to four hours a day at the computer. I seem to be able to manage both without one affecting the other or not being able to focus on other matters. If anything, that morning session, I believe enhances my abilities.
When I was younger, I was proud of being a multitasker. Something has gone wrong as the amount of time my mind spends on one task before flittering on to the next becomes less and less. It is hard to separate out what is due to the internet and what is due to age and the onset of dementia!
Rummuser seems to have a good idea of finding a time to be focused in the morning before the computer is turned on.
Evan,
I also use the internet to find books that go into more depth on a subject. Books are fine, but they take a long time to write and publish. For instance, Karen Armstrong’s The Battle for God goes into great depth about the fundamentalist reaction to modernity in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, but it was written in 2001. A lot has happened since then and if one pokes around one can find more up-to-date information on the web. We’re living in revolutionary times and it’s interesting to connect current events with long-term history.
I’m also reviewing American political history to see why democracy plus the Bill of Rights more or less worked in the U.S. And I’ve just read that there’s a lot more sectarian violence in Pakistan when it has an elected civil government than when there is a military dictatorship. Politicians pander to groups with votes. They sometimes stir things up for their own gain and at least don’t take action against groups who would turn against them in the elections. Good government is a nontrivial problem, one interesting to contemplate.
Rummuser,
What specifically do you do in the morning? What do you focus on? Or do you meditate instead?
Needless to say, my boiled egg story, although true, was an extreme example designed to throw a bit of humor into the discussion. 🙂
Looney,
I’ve never liked multitasking. So I like studies that show people are less efficient when they multitask. Also the studies I’ve read say we get less able to do it as we get older. I doubt that the internet is really affecting your brain!
Looney,
My husband and I talked about the effect of getting older on the brain tonight. He thinks he remembers an article which said as we get older we’re more apt to get distracted by things that occur in our peripheral field of vision. Instead of adding it to the sensory data coming in the stimulus replaces what we’re already paying attention to. That’s slightly different from what you’re describing, but very related I think.
At one side, internet technology can be said a blessing that providing information abundantly even connecting people as like we live in one world.
Whether internet is distracting it’s depends on how addicted we are. The people that we loved or loved us will probably feel a little distracted by our addiction. There are ridiculous stories I’ve heard that a couple had quarreled because his wife was infatuated with Facebook. Harmonious time has been shallow or lessen maybe 🙁
“Does it give your life more depth?”
With sure, nothing can replace harmonious life in real life with people we love 🙂
tikno,
You raise a good point. I think it depends on the couple. Close relationships are very important to me, but that doesn’t mean I have to spend most of my time doing things/talking with my loved ones. bikehikebabe wrote
I don’t think that’s universal. We live in a community of scientists who tend to be introverted…often more introverted than their wives. They tend to be absorbed by work and love to read. It has nothing to do with the internet and they do fine with women who have their own interests and still care about them and enjoy the time they do spend together. It sometimes takes a while to figure out the right balance.
I love the relationship I have with my husband, but I know a lot of women who hate being married to introverts. I’m half introvert, half extrovert so I spend more time with friends than he does. And, of course, we interacted with our daughter a lot before she grew up.
Evan,
I’ve been thinking of your statement
I’m starting to find a wealth of information on the internet. You might look at Internet Modern History Sourcebook and The Avalon Project—Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy for starters.
I like being married to the introvert since I’ve trained him to listen to me. He does now. And I tell him a lot of short amusing to me, things. He’s not amused by all & neither is our CheerfulMonk Jean (Jean is an excellent listener.)
Do you think the internet is distracting or does it give your life more depth?
It’s part of our life and we use it to round out things we are interested in.
(We’re sitting in the parking lot of WalMart in Gillette, Wyoming during a lunch break, online for a bit while we have a wonderfully fast connection.)
The Internet has certainly been a great distraction for me!
Before I went to University and before my Health improved it was a great tool – although I seemed to look at more ‘people’ websites and I think it was before ‘blogs’ really got going. I looked at the world that i was interested in at that time…
When my health began to improve – I looked at different things. Alot of fitness, nutrition and exercising. Along with “now what could I now do with my life” – not necessarily self-improvement. This area had been address long ago before the Net when I used libraries/books
Of course, since I went to University which uses Internet extensively the whole place opened up wider than was previously believeable for me 🙂 – I have no idea where I would start to explain things that help me now…or even for why. I still though look at real books, because that is a greater part of learning but I can check a ‘plot summary’; ‘cited by xyz#’ and stuff like that. ‘wikipedia’ is a good starting point as well especially the footnotes/reference sections. Some of the reference books I then find in the library.
My next essay due is going to be about Illicit Antiquities from Cambodia – there is a lot of info on that on-line. UNESCO and INDROIT, ICOM to name the professional sites but also Newspaper articles and so forth….see my blog for some info on the changing face of mass-media versus what might have been available in the 70s/80s
Mike,
That’s a great way of describing it, rounding out things that we’re interested in.
Cathy,
It sounds indispensable to you. Your college experience is a lot different from mine because of the internet.
My problem is in using English. What I practice is Nidhidhyasana. http://www.chinmayasaaket.org/articles/guruji/spiritual_perfection.php
As someone with ADHD, I have trouble controlling my impulses. This means that when presented with other options, any options that appeal to me are difficult to resist. For me, although the internet is a valuable tool, the danger is that it always presents a lot of options, and with low impulse control… Well. That’s the main reason for me the internet is a distraction – the format is conducive to bouncing me around to many places, rather than spending a long period of time on any one thing. I think that for people born into this period, where there are always a lot of options to divert you on any page you read (vs developing when a page you read only contained the text ie a book), this could certainly affect the way you think and make contemplation more difficult – simply through lack of practice.
As someone with ADHD, I have trouble controlling my impulses. This means that when presented with other options, any options that appeal to me are difficult to resist. For me, although the internet is a valuable tool, the danger is that it always presents a lot of options, and with low impulse control… Well. That’s the main reason for me the internet is a distraction – the format is conducive to bouncing me around to many places, rather than spending a long period of time on any one thing. I think that for people born into this period, where there are always a lot of options to divert you on any page you read (vs developing when a page you read only contained the text ie a book), this could certainly affect the way you think and make contemplation more difficult – simply through lack of practice.
Finding Your Passion
Joel,
So how much time do you spend on the internet each day? Do you ration yourself?
Jean,
Actually most of my work is on the internet! So close to 10 hours many days.
Can be a bit of a struggle to stay on task though as you can imagine! I have certainly had to ration myself when I get home though, as I find I lose time very quickly on the internet. “Just 5 more minutes” becomes several hours very easily.
So I now try to keep it off when I get home.
Joel
Joel,
Not logging on at home sounds like a great idea!