All this reading about mobile technology and how more and more people are connected to the Internet nearly 24 hours a day has got me thinking. Do the Generation Z kids who are digital natives experience information overload? If this is what they've always known, isn't it the status quo and therefore NOT an overload? Are their brains forming differently as a result of the "Inter"activity? My suspicions are that their brains do function a little differently (neuron mapping and what not - things I know NOTHING about) and that they're not overloaded because their brains have been figuring out from Day One how to cope with "the load".
This is what's knocking about in the back of my brain.
I wish I knew the answers.
There's probably research out there about it.
But who has time for extracurricular research?! I've got some tweeting to take care of!
This is something that is on my mind all the time, too, because of my students and my kids.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not they are experiencing it as overload, studies are definitely showing that we're not yet wired to remember all that we wish to:
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861382/the-myth-of-multitasking
I recently gave an article about this idea of technology overload to my students, and their answers surprised me. Many of them feel pretty stressed out by their machines.
That's interesting to hear that the kids are stressed. So I guess we need to teach kids not only how to think critically about what they are viewing but also about how to shut it off. Teach them to control the machine and not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, I wish I could sit in on one of your classes one day. I imagine you to be as brilliant with the students as you are in everyday life.
I think about this all the time too! It freaks me out to be raising kids with all of the technology and un-welcoming programming that comes along with it. I may be old fashioned but there is no way to know what effects these technologies are having on the developing minds of our children. I won't go so far as to say that it is bad, but the effects are definitely not tested. When we get the answer in 20 years it may be too late.
ReplyDeleteI also feel that reading Facebook and making our eyes track in an up and down motion instead of side to side, like we read, is changing our neuronal pathways. I thought of this last night. I realize that it is more difficult to read the words in a book because my eyes are trained for a different motion these days.
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