Focus By Daniel Golem Book Review

In “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era,” Richard Restak considers the effect of technology on our brains. As we process increasing amounts of information at ever-faster speeds, Restak argues that our brains are undergoing “profound alterations” in order to adapt to the changing needs of our modern world. As technology connects us to more people, places, and information than ever before, Restak warns that we are losing important cognitive functions, in particular our ability to focus and concentrate. However Restak fails to mention that technology has created significant affordances as well. Allowing society to advance as a whole, via social media, e-mail, cell phones, and other various communications. Technology is reshaping our habits of mind.Yes technology created a slight defect to the mind but many advantages came about using technology as an asset.

Studies have found that as the phone use increases, your attention goes elsewhere, “revealing that the more heavily student relied on their phones in their everyday lives, the greater the cognitive penalty they suffered” (Carr 3). The more focus a cell phone receives the more a person will suffer mentally. At UCSD around 520 students were given two standardized tests of intellectual acuity. “The only variable in the experiment was the location of the subjects’ smartphones. Some of the students.. place their phones in front of them on their desks; others were told to stow their phones in their pockets.. others were required to leave their phones in a different room” (Carr 3). The results from this study were conspicuous. It’s self-evident that anyone with phone insight had worst scores than those who didn't have their phones at all or had them in their pockets. Technology has take over us and it is draining our

Many people are being distracted these days by the overuse of technology. It has become very difficult for people to focus on one task at a time. Also, people are forgetting some old ways of increasing their intelligence and ways of developing skills. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” By Nicholas Carr, he argues that internet restricts the minds from increasing our ability to fully understand what we read online. He also argues that spending “too much” time online causes to lose the focus and train our minds to think more like machines. Also, in the article “Why Gen-Y Johnny Can’t Read Nonverbal Cues” by Mark Bauerlein, he argues that people are less interactive because of the more use of texting and online chatting. He argues that

Matt Richtel, another journalist agrees that focusing has become harder with the increase in the use of technology. He suggests the reason is because of how we obtain the information. “Scientists say juggling email, phone calls and other incoming information can change how people think and behave. They say out ability to focus is being undermined by bursts of information. These play to a primitive impulse to respond to immediate

In the article "Our Cell Phones, Ourselves," by Christine Rosen, she explains the dependency on cell phone use while highlighting unforeseen consequences that may occur with cellular device use. From allowing parents to track down their children, to having a casual conversation with a friend, cell phones offer people an unparalleled level of convenience. Furthermore, cell phone owners feel much safer knowing that in an emergency, help is just a phone call away. This convenience, however, does not come without any negative effects. Many cell phone owners become too engrossed in their phones and therefore ignore the physical world, an idea that Rosen refers to as "absent presence.” Also, people may use their phones as a way to prove they are

Being tethered to a phone, as opposed to simply having and using one, has become the norm and does more harm than good at times. People, especially teenagers, cannot seem to put the phones down. Some even admit to being addicted to their smart phones and experience anxiety when they are without it. According to Ellen Gibson, author of “Sleep with Your iPhone? You're Not Alone”, more than thirty-five percent of adults in the U.S. have a smart phone; two thirds of those people actually sleep with their phone due to the anxiety they feel from the thought of missing something such as a text, phone call, email, or social media posting. Gibson states “…being away from their phone will almost certainly cause separation anxiety… some people have become so dependent on being able to use their smartphones to go online anytime, anywhere, that without that access, they ‘can no longer handle their daily routine’”. To some, being addicted to a phone is like being addicted to a drug; there is a strong dependency that makes it hard to focus or concentrate on anything else. After speaking with a group of students from Cranston High School in Connecticut, Turkle says “These young people live in a state of waiting for connection. And they are willing to take risks, to put themselves on the line. Several admit that tethered to their phones, they get into accidents when walking” (236). This is an issue that will

We all carry a smartphone. We have what some might call an addiction for them. They are convenient in certain classes and easy to use. They are also our own escape. We can easily talk to

Media and technology are permeating and changing every part of our lives, but are there consequences to these changes? Nicholas Carr questions if the Internet is helping people as much as it is believed to in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” With an increased reliance on the Internet, Carr has found patterns of shortened attention in himself and among others. Carr points out frightening changes occurring in human behavior and the workings of the brain that have now become evident in our society’s younger generation and could have devastating consequences.

When people think of addictions, usually, drugs and chemical substances come to mind. A frequent trend observed in today’s age is not being able to go anywhere without one’s digital device and being addicted to that device, especially one’s cell phone. Adopting a cell phone separation anxiety, is a type of behavioral addiction that is seen more and more today. On average, people are spending about three hours on their phones each day. Alter states, “‘Behavioral addictions are really widespread now...risen with the adoption of newer more addictive social networking platforms, tablets and smartphones’” (Dreifus). As new technologies that cater to people’s wants increase, addiction to these technologies will increase as well. People become so attached to their phones that they will perhaps get distracted from their current situation. In the article “Hooked On Our Smartphones”, the author Jane E. Brody talked about how sometimes commuters or drivers put themselves in a dangerous position when they pay more attention to their phone instead of what surrounds them. The almost

The message from this section sticks out to me because I am surprised about the average smartphone user checks his or her phone around 150 times a day (Huffington, 2015). The statistic shows that how often smartphone users check or use their phones per day. Moreover, it also tells us how our brain is forced to distract attention continually, and it becomes difficult for us to focus on certain things when we use the smartphone too often. Technology products are like the serpent in the digital garden of Eden, which gives us what we want, but not necessarily what we need. Technology devices will not be helpful for people when we either overuse it or become addicted to it. My

When we walked into the 21century, technology has not only become an important part of our daily life, it has been advanced at a rate we could never imagined. Technology broadens our horizon and shows us so many aspects of the world. However, the more advanced technology becomes, the more we lose our ability to care for others, which is a significant part of our humanity. We use machines a lot more in our daily life instead of ourselves. Due to this, the open world makes it more difficult to concentrate and focus on ourselves , others and our environment. In “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era”, Richard believes that modern technology makes us less attentive and hard to concentrate on one thing. The development of technology does bring us convenience and let communication become easier and faster, while we become too rely on our technology and use them to store our memories, communicating and so on. In “We Are a Camera”, Nick claims that we are more likely to use electronic products to record our memories instead of our own brain.Technology could make people become too lazy to memorize or talk to each other face to face. The development of technology lets us become more connected to the whole world, however, we also spend less time with our close friends and family. We are losing our humanity because we rely on technology more than ourselves, this is shown evident through cognitive attempts at multi-tasking which is to follow society’s fast speed and focus

Whether you’re getting directions, calling a loved one to let them know you’re running a little late, or checking Facebook to catch up with an old high school friend, cell phones have began to dominate our technology based society due to their easy accessibility and endless uses. While “nine-in-ten Americans own a cell phone and nearly two-thirds own a smartphone,” the cell phone is has become one of the only things the vast majority of people deem necessary in their life (Rainie et al., 2015). “Ch 1: Always on Connectivity,” written by by Lee Rainie and Kathryn Zickuhr, explains how dependent adults really have become of our cell phones. “8 Fascinating Facts About How Teens Use The Internet And Social Media” elaborates

Are we addicted to our cell phones? This is a common question that has arisen in the past several years as our phone technology and capabilities continue to increase. According to recent statistics, 85% of the U.S. population are cell phone users (Chen).We Americans use our cell phones to do just about everything. We talk, text, check our E-mail, surf the Internet, and interact in social networking, all on our phones. Because our phones have become so resourceful to us in our everyday lives, many say that cell phones have become addicting. Cell phones in today 's life have become very addicting to many people, and there are many ways in which to show how they are addicting.

In the article “Who says smart phone addiction is a bad thing? The case for constant connectivity.” (Toronto Life, 2012), Jesse Brown breaks down his reasons and beliefs on the negativity surrounding smart phones that perceived as an addiction. Correspondingly, Brown states that notification sounds and buzzing from our devices tells us, we are important and wanted, however we fear that we won’t be able to live without this constant stream of reassuring stimulation. Moreover, Brown tries to convey that smartphones are not the problem, we’re the problem. We reply on smartphones for everything way more than we need to. Furthermore, we make checking our smartphones our top priority by immediately jumping when we hear sounds that indicate notifications. Accordingly, we are on high alert because of these notifications, which could be anything from an important work update or a friend’s text.

Technology has become a great benefit to us but many people have taken it too far. According to researcher and surveys taken all over the world shows that a large number of people may have become addicted to their technological devices and are not able to make it through a day without their cell phones or other technological devices. Many have concerns that people would rather use these devices than to have a face to face conversation. The addictions of technological devices are on the rise. Although these devices were meant to make our lives easier there have been many problems to arise ranging from health risk, relationship problems, classroom, church, and work interferences. Statistics show that cell