New Media: The dangers of 24/7 connectivity and embedded culture of distraction

By: Adekunle Oke (EXPONENT)

The new media have produced an era of abundance. There are more information, more media outlets, more mobile devices, more media content, and more communication options than ever before. But what has this increase in the quantity of media technologies done to the quality of our thinking and communication? A wide variety of analysts, from different disciplines and perspectives, have addressed this question, and many have concluded that our adoption of new media technologies is producing significantly negative social consequences; the opinion in which as a journalist-in-making I reserved my objection. Interestingly, critiques of the impact of new media on social life have come mostly from people who are at the centre of developing, studying, or using such media themselves. These are not Luddites who resist new technologies; they are mostly people who have experienced the effect of new media firsthand. New media users are these days too busy to think. Dr. Adeleye, a Psychologist, argues that our embrace of new media has produced a sort of attention-deficit culture, expressed through the presence of constant stimulation, interruption, and multitasking. This fleeting culture of distraction, Adeleye contends, produces superficial "Mc Thinking" that can be fun and engaging but that provides little intellectual nutritional value. Such a culture undermines our ability to focus, concentrate and attend to the deeper and more substantive issues in life that are the bedrock of intimate social relationships, wisdom and advances in culture. While the ability of the Internet and mobile devices to connect people is typically celebrated as one of its greatest features, a friend journalist who covers technology issues, considers what he calls the "conundrum of connectivity." Yes, argues Olayinka, technology that allows us to connect to information and people from any place 24/7 is an awesome achievement. But history suggests that wisdom, insight and perspective are gained from being disconnected; by creating time and space for solitude and contemplative thought. A healthy and vibrant life in the digital age, he argues, needs to involve a balance between the advantages of connectivity and the benefits of solitude. Meanwhile, as a journalist-in-making, I also want to believe that the fragmented, transient and hyper stimulative environment of the internet and other new media contributes to ways of perceiving and thinking that are similarly fragmented and shallow. To make my case, experimental evidence from neuroscience shows that surfing the internet indeed develops different neural pathways in the brain than does reading a book. The constant stimulus, fleeting distractions, frequent interruptions and pervasive multitasking that characterised the contemporary media environment help produce a decline in people's ability to focus, concentrate and engage in serious thought. The ability to concentrate, think seriously, read deeply and follow an argument are not instinctual; they must be nurtured through training and practice that occurs when engaging for extended periods of time with complex ideas and arguments, as we do when we read a book. The world of tweets, hyperlinks, wikipedia summaries, Facebook posts, 2go chats and viral videos, however, do not promote such skills. Such constant stimulus and conversely, the lack of prolonged consideration, is literally affecting how our brains develop. And these changes affect how we think. Sustained contemplation is being replaced by fleeting and shallow reactions. Mr. Oke D.O, my Dad; do say, despite a world of knowledge at their fingertips, the younger generation that has grown up with new media is less informed, less literate, more self-absorbed and more depressed than any that has preceded it. He often points to the popularity of social networking as one source of the problem. The immediate and personalised nature of social networking, the retired headmaster argues, emphasizes the value of newness and facilitates an extreme focus on the self and immediate networks of friends. Information or news that isn't about this narrow world is often of little interest. Further, the trend toward briefer instantaneous messages not only threatens thoughtful communication, but it even promotes the erosion of traditional spelling, grammar and punctuation that have long served as a useful foundation for serious communication. Unto fellow social media addicts, new media, a curse or blessing to our generation?