Smartphones and other technological paraphernalia have invaded our lives. We are now surrounded by people eschewing social etiquette by compulsively checking their phones, drawn automatically to the incessant "ding" of their notifications. The ubiquity and nature of this modern technology have made concentrating on anything for more than a moment feel like a Herculean task. Young children are particularly at risk, since their neurological development is not yet complete.
The impression that children are negatively affected by personal computing devices is reflected in anecdotal evidence from classrooms, where teachers increasingly report shortened attention spans in pupils. Lisa Cranberg, a veteran elementary school teacher, believes that “exposure to technology is rewiring our kids' brains.” For her, “children spending extended periods of time interacting solely with their smartphones is showing diminished self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and focus.” In essence, she believes that overstimulation is making it difficult for students to concentrate in a traditional lecture-centric classroom.
Not everyone is as anxious, however, about technological advances. Dr. Clara Hughes of the University of Waterloo agrees that shifts in stimuli are resulting in cerebral rewiring, with ramifications that might include shorter attention spans. However, she claims that developing these mechanisms that allow us to partake in rapid-fire attention shifting is actually “beneficial to creative types whose job is to amalgamate disparate ideas.” She surmises that our brains are simply adapting to the level of stimulation inherent to our environment.
In fact, while technology can be harmful to concentration, a new wave of research is unearthing a whole slew of unforeseen beneficial effects. “Modern technology is bettering our ability to multitask and concentrate in short bursts,” according to neuropsychologist Dr. Mark Levinson. This means that “we get a better sense of what deserves our attention, and there is an improved selection of the information we commit to memory.”
Dr. Hughes is more moderate in her analysis, saying that “overexposure and gadget addiction do have a demonstrably negative effect on many cognitive behaviours.” Nevertheless, she concurs with Dr. Levinson’s overall beneficial assessment of the neurological side-effects of our interactions with digital technologies.