Technological Distraction

“I am convinced that learning to live with both internal and external distractions is all about teaching the concept of focus.” (Rosen 11) Are we being driven to distraction? This question is posed in Larry Rosen's essay Driven To Distraction; he argues students are distracted by technology. He makes his argument effective through use of logos, tone and rhetorical patterns. However, Rosen's essay is weakened by not addressing opposing arguments and by using a false authority fallacy. He explains how technology greatly distracts students nowadays and then offers techniques we can apply to help increase their focus and encourage them to be less “plugged in”.

The article “How Smart-phones Hijack Our Minds” by Nicolas Carr is about the destructive use of smart phones. So many people depend on their smart phones that it damages with the outcome of their work. Smart phones also make it harder to focus and remember since everything is now saved on your phone. The destruction with the phones don’t only occur with everyday activities, but it also affects your relationships and can cause distractions. Overall, the use of smart phones has shown negative effects on people’s minds.

We also have cell phones now, so we can look up anything, or say anything on social media. Social media keeps us distracted 99.9% of the time because, if you think about it we are always on Instagram, snapchat, twitter, or even facebook looking at peoples post and sharing our own.

The computer is a work tool, organizer, a communication tool, and after we has been sitting on the computer for eight hours, most will probably still be able to read messages or private e-mails at home, or book the next trip. Some researchers see this as a change in people's attention span, as the oversupply of shorter texts, videos and graphics are preferred and more complex content is pushed into the background. Without the computer, it is no longer possible, and thanks to the development of more and more recent technology, such as the highly acclaimed smart devices, people and computers remain connected all day

Throughout the “A generation of Slackers” by Ronald Alsop he explains and analyzes today’s current societal issues of being able to focus while the consent distraction of the smartphone. This article completely hit the technology issue on the head in all places that is necessary. The article also pinpoints major issues surrounding the how the smartphone can play a role in avoiding people and procrastination in life.

In the same article that supports technology, Richtel states, “Humans can process only a single stream of information at a time.” Americans rarely stay on task when they are on their phone, swayed by the desire to check social media or play a game. Cell phone users oftentimes claim that they can multitask. However, research shows that this is impossible and that those individuals are delusional. In reality, they switch back and forth between their phones and work, causing them to waste time.

Today’s society is drastically different from the previous. In the past, the most advanced technology was working electricity, no one had to worry about checking their work emails at home. Today we are constantly surrounded by technology, in fact we come in contact with it so often we are almost fully dependent on it in the work place, and at home. Richard Restak shows us the negative effects of that dependency in his essay “Attention Deficit: The Brain Syndrome of Our Era”. We are constantly at work with technology, and it is literally changing the way we operate. Matt Richtel has proof of this in his article based off a study by some neurologists titled “Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain”. Today, we have little to no control over our addiction to technology and our work life, the two have merged into one stress filled existence. However, Alexandra Samuel lets us know there are better ways to deal with our technology based work addiction than quitting cold turkey in her article “’Plug In Better’: A Manifesto”. Due to technology, our work and personal lives have become impossible to decipher, leaving no time for a stress free and balanced life away from the office.

With time comes the constant change of technology, its advancements and our reactions over the refinement itself. In ‘ Distracted: The Erosion of Attention And The Coming Dark Age”, Jackson makes ungrounded statements concerning the negative effects of technology and the benefits it has acquired however Jackson accurately reveals the truth behind Jackson’s opinions on the effects of technology are one sided and very biased. A study by Edward Hallowell states that the way we are living our lives, controlled by balancing multiple task, is contributing to the attention deficit disorders (Jackson 149). As a result of our speedy generation, fast-acting systems and programs perfectly embody what is appropriate to our society at the time.

While Tegu describes his surprise about the power of social media as his ideas on Tweets had such a rapid spread and aroused waves of comments and emotions, Sherry Turtle also introduces the strong power of technology that both changes the way people think of themselves and shapes our ways of being. According to her research, technology shifts us from connection to isolation, and in the future technology may become our only companies that will listen to our words and solve our loneliness. Simultaneously, Roger Kay narrates the increasing power of social media which can change our traditional behavioral patterns and modes of thought in“Multitasking: Good Or Bad?”. He indicates that we are likely to spread attention over different sources

Today, you can see multiple people walking down the street with their heads buried in their phones tweeting about an event that just occurred or sending a quick text message to a friend. The technology and social media is just one of the many reasons why our society has a hard time maintaining attention. Mr. Schwartz had many respectable opinions in the article “Attention Lessons: A Need We Must Heed”. Within the article, I found many points of Mr. Schwartz’s argument that I agreed with, yet a couple of points and the solution that was presented I disagreed with. I believe society is driven by social media and a person needs focus to accomplish tasks, however, I disagree that maintaining attention is a skill and that children can be taught

Ok, let me start off by saying that a screen free week sounds like a fantastic idea to me. It will give us more time to do more important things than just typing on an iPad or computer all day. Having the technology we have today isn't always a good thing. This technology can cause us all types of problems like getting distracted or even cause forgetfulness and attention problems. It can even crave us to be multitasking and cause us to get injured.

Pain is necessary and important. In fact, it is an inborn drive, vital to our very existence (Hebb). Pain prompts us to change something, for instance, to move our hand off of a hot stove. It, therefore, prevents us from causing damage or even death to ourselves. It motivates us to protect an injured area, and the abatement of that pain lets us know when it is safe to use that area of our body again (Doctor's Surgery Center). While pain is a crucial sensation, required for our survival, it’s no secret that in our day to day lives we want to avoid it at all cost. Pain doesn’t feel good. Therefore, if we can avoid it, we will.

Is technology a distraction? technology can be a distraction it can be a distraction all the especially if you have a cell phone. We are all distracted by technology all the time. People get distracted from doing other things. however it really depends on who can hanndle having a piece of technology there are people who can be responsible and people who can't. there are a lot of people who can't hanndle having a piece of technology there have been so many car accidents for text driving and why does this all happen because it's the people who are distracting themselves for using a piece of technology. Technology distracts people a lot it only depends on the way you use it and time you use it. Technology can be very useful for important things

The article focuses on the distraction of mobile devices in the college classroom. Brenner explains that they are distracting to not only the person using them, but the people around them as well. Through her research, she found that the people sitting next to multitaskers on their laptops tended to score lower on tests than those without the distraction. On that note, she states that people “are not wired to multi task”. Through a study, she found that texting during lectures caused a decrease in student’s ability to take notes, pay attention, and perform well on tests. She also found that the use of laptops

Our lives seem to be more and more consumed by technology as great advances in this area have continue to be made, especially when it comes to social media. Many researchers have begun to notice that depending on how much time individuals spend on these social media sites, they can negatively affect their daily lifestyle in very significant ways.  For example, social networking has become a huge distraction for students and it can affect their grades depending on how often they check their various accounts while doing class work.  Researchers have also come to find out that social media can contribute to the development of psychological symptoms