Drew Gilpin Faust was interviewed on Charlie Rose last night, and one of her serious concerns about people today is lack of attention span. This is obvious, as Faust went on, in talking to people, and youth who cannot carry on a thought process or conversation without permitting distractions.

Multitasking is new to society, and thrown at consumers before the majority have learned how to not only use it, but know what to buy so that the technology best serves their needs; hence, people are blitzed with communication ‘tools,’ and yet cannot stop, relax, read a book, and certainly never relax and listen to an opera without wires coming from their heads. It is very sad.

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6754

All of us multitask at our desks. The internet, often with multi-windows open at the same time as we go back and forth, the phone, the fax and a variety of distractions as a result of just those three.  I inevitably hit "send" without doing a spell check. You would think someone would have come up with a program to make spell check automatic.

As for the gadets I don’t use them. I don’t like pagers and I don’t like cell phones and I don’t do texting and wouldn’t be caught dead on Twitter.  And I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in a car with someone who multitasks while driving. Which a growing number of people do.  

And I go absolutely nuts over people and their gadgets in theaters. Nothing ruins a good play like the sudden blast of music announcing someone has a call on their cell phone.  If it were me on stage when it happened, everything would come to a screeching halt. And then I would peer out to the audience and ask "are you finished with your phone call yet?"  We may be technologically advanced but our social skills have slowly eroded as a result. 

I feel that all the multitasking is taking away from our personal relationships.  People rarely sit and just visit with one another anymore without being interrupted by a cell phone conversation…which they answer.  What does this say about the importance of the person you are with?  I mean, come on, we got along just fine years ago without having to interrupt lunch with a friend with a phone conversation.  It wasn’t a necessity then, and honestly it isn’t now either, we’ve just convinced ourselves to become reliant on it. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, I know it applies to many because I see it so often.  It isn’t the cell phone that is the villain, it is the way we have convinced ourselves we are dependent on them. As for the dangers of multitasking while driving, the cell phone isn’t the only culprit to blame but the most predominant now-a-days.  There is also the CD players, hot drinks, and the usual no-brain ideas that some decide to do while driving.

I would support new federeal regulations to require hands free cell phone usage while driving.  England has had this law for years, and some states here do as well, I don’t see why we as Americans have to wait for statistics of injuries and fatalities to build up before we decide to do something about it.

We are a society in many ways no longer is using the learning process, rather accessing needed information as needed. Side stepping the learning process which was based on learning and creating a knowledge base. Attention spans given to providing answers rather than researching, via the net and other tools relying on research already present. Add that to remote controls on tv, etc. which allow the mind to flip switches rapidly in what we choose to watch or do, rather than conscious thought.

I took my five year old grandson a couple weeks ago to what the school called Flip night. A night of explaining to parents the importance of reading comprehension, rather than just knowing the words. Stopping to ask questions and understand before just reading a book. A total 360 from the days my kids were that age and multiple forms of retaining words, reading and picking up comprehension in the process. Although good lessons and reminders for any age to focus on the knowledge rather than just accessing content.