Distracted Brains

The natural state of our brain is distractedness. The distracted nature of our brains was an evolutionary adaptation to keep us safe. By seeing things that move, it alerted us to either danger or food. We gained the ability to really concentrate for long periods when we started to read books. The internet has made us distracted again.

We gear our minds for the world we live in. If you have a linear book reading world view of a techno-peasant by choice or by need, the information feeds of the internet with it's bursts of micro-information are difficult to digest or comprehend.

But for those that are used to the internet, ages 5-20, they have a non-linear mind which is hungry for the quick knowledge easily accessed via google and the web. A book would take too long to satisfy the need for information. They want to get to the core of the matter and all the rest is extraneous. Deep reading requires calm and quiet. The reader becomes the book. This isn't satisfying to the compulsive nibblers of info-snacks. They have the ability to focus, although shallowly, on multiple forms of information or stimuli. Iphone, internet, video game. They can do all of them at the same time, but not deeply.

The brain is not a fixed thing. It's a work in progress. By doing an action or activity we are changing the neural map in our brains. This rerouting of pathways is reinforced by repeating the action or activity. We create our own habits. This can lead to the creation and perpetuation of bad habits.

The hundreds of years of evolution and progress in the human brain which lead to long term concentration and changes in the way we think has been compressed into a few decades. Your computer, your Iphone, your cable TV have taken part in forming your thoughts. Your brain is not hardwired to think a certain way but changes with the software, the stimuli. The internet is not just an exterior technology but transformative of interior consciousness.

In a way we are between two technological worlds. Technology; radio, television, couldn't replace the written word. The internet can and has/does. It's still a literate world in a handheld smart phone. The internet is our typewriter and printing press, our clock and map, our calculator, our phone, post office, library, radio and television. It even takes over the computer's need to have memory built into it. Your information goes to a "cloud."

I wonder how the brain will continue to evolve. I notice I have to remove myself from the many distractions which are in my everyday environment when I really want to read for long periods. This was not the way I concentrated 10 years ago. I could focus almost anywhere, shut out the distractions. That is harder now.

Ooooo, something shiny...