Mar 17 2011: I think the problem may not be technology per se, but rather the number and frequency of stimulae received everyday by citizens of the modern world. And I know of no way to mitigate or control this. I read an idea by a idea by Dr. Richard Restak in his book The New Brain where he speculates that our ADHD behavior is not a disease or disability but instead an adaptation to a world with higher and higher numbers of stimulae. In such a world an organism would be most likely to survive by rapidly scanning all the stimulae that are received in order to make sure that nothing is dangerous. Imagine a simple world where we are constantly surrounded by dozens of different kinds of animals, all making noise, a few of which would like to have us for lunch. We would pretty much have to pay attention to all the sounds in some kind of rotation if we expect to survive. And if we concentrated on any one too long we might end up someone's meal. The ability to concentrate may be a luxury of past more simple times. The price of progress.
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A comment on Conversation: Can young adults be taught how to change their individual approaches to managing time so they don't also fall into crazy techno-habits?