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Neil Tweedie reports that the Internet is destroying young minds (How the internet lures and then distracts you, The West, 6 Jul 10).
Actually, Tweedie's article is quite well balanced. He points out that "the worriers" are seeing internet users losing their ability to apply themselves to a single task for an extended time. (Note that I politely said, "themselves" rather than "ourselves"?) He then points out that similar worriers have proclaimed the end of memory / thinking / discussion / etc, for various earlier innovations. Writing, books and newspapers, for example.
I, however, see a great benefit, if the worriers are correct:
Way back -- perhaps twenty years ago -- I read of research into the attention span of senior managers. Remember, this was way back before the internet was invented... This was what the researchers found: Senior managers spend eight minutes or less, on any one topic.
Senior managers change topics at least every eight minutes. They switch their mental gears perhaps sixty times in each working day. This ability to quickly switch trains of thought was considered to be not only good but essential to effective management.
Want to be a senior manager? Learn to switch into a topic, make a decision, switch to the next topic... Every eight minutes or less.
Guess what?
Internet users are being brain-trained to switch between ideas much faster than every eight minutes. Internet users are better that senior managers -- okay, of twenty years ago -- at considering a multitude of topics in a single day.
Leave the extended task focus to the worker drones. Old senior managers, move aside. The quick thinking, multi-processing internet trained youth -- are ready to take over.
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