The internet came to school when I was in 7th grade; in 9th grade I got my own email account, and by the time I graduated from high school, I had hung out in chat rooms and learned for the first time that there are very sad and strange people hanging around in chat rooms.
Then the internet, and its browsers, ripened into a golden age of reading your mind. Autocorrect had been around, built into word processing programs, for some time, but now autofill came in full force on internet website forms. I began to take for granted that any question I had for google had already been asked a hundred times, and the dropdown autofill menu typically confirms that. Thus, only half a word into the act of writing out a search item, I can complete the request with a tap of the down arrow and Enter.
Then you go to write a paper for the first time in a while and find yourself full of ideas...and a strange writer's block when it comes to finishing sentences...
I've noticed different ways technology does my thinking for me.
It's nice that I no longer rely on a computer printout for telephone numbers of friends and family. Taped to the wall by the landline, this handy directory was really convenient, growing up. In fact, over time I naturally memorized several of my best friend's phone numbers. Now there is no need to memorize phone numbers. After having a work phone for several years, I have only recently learned what my own work number is!
In the last few years, since finishing college and developing simple daily routines of life, I have noticed other trends in my neural firings. For my own personal success in life, I had to leave one of the internet's most popular social networking sites. It has the potential to be addicting. More to the point, its design is extremely conducive to being addicting. Who ever thought a tiny red icon containing a number could give you such an instantly gratifying high of affirmation and importance? So, realizing my tendency to float around for hours in the half-light of the never-ending whirlpool of notifications, live feeds, and funny videos, I did the cold turkey thing.
This brings me to my final observation. Just an instant ago I heard a noise that told me an email has arrived!!!! I have eliminated a lot of junk mail, so there is about a fifty percent chance that it is something relevant to me personally. At that sound, I instantly stopped mid-sentence and moved my mouse to the application bar. The email icon had one of those ubiquitous red symbols with a number. Then I stopped and came back, because the intense onset of ADD caused by notification sounds is what sparked this post!
Lately I've struggled a lot with focus. A lot is going on in my life, actually. Twice last week, in person, I caught myself yanking my attention away from a friend I was talking to because somebody had walked up and interrupted. I know interruptions are one of those things you have to figure out how to deal with in life, but I couldn't help noticing how unapologetically my attention instantly switched and I completely forgot what I had been talking to my friend about.
Maybe my focus problem is independent of technology. Maybe not. This morning a text message woke me up. Alarms don't get me up, but a text message will. I picked up my phone, read the message, and responded. Then I lay down again and began thinking about my day, preparing and planning in my head. But, whatever I was thinking about, it completely fell apart when my phone beeped again and I grabbed it to see the latest text message. I responded, and lay back down, and then thought, "I have no idea what I was thinking." Then I thought, "I think that a lot after I've been interrupted."
Instant gratification is no longer the only culprit. I've allowed myself to be trained by sounds and small icons to instantly drop whatever I have been doing and turn my complete attention to the new sensory input. Although instant gratification is the motivation to be so trained, the training is now in place. It doesn't matter if I'm in the mood for texting, if I want to be receiving an email. Those stimuli demand instant responses.
This morning I turned off the text message alert sound in my phone.
When I have posted this message, I am going to turn off the email alert sound on my computer.
There is no rational or compelling reason that I need to know instantly when I receive messages. That is what telephone calls are for, and I don't receive too many of those. My phone can demand attention for those.
Speaking of phone calls, I have memorized a few telephone numbers. I do it by applying my music knowledge, translating numbers to scale degrees.
1-C
2-D
3-E
4-F
5-G
6-A
7-B
8-C
9-D
0-E
(The last couple numbers being in the next octave up).
It is nice how much technology has made life easier. But I am determined to reclaim my ability to memorize and to ignore distractions. Since technology has designed extremely compelling distractions, which are 9 times out of 10 mere "wolf" cries, I think it is only fair to just turn off some of those noises.
