[ExI] "Feral" humans, NOT

[Mike Dougherty]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 10:43 PM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> Ja.  It concerns me that ADD in particular may be over-diagnosed, when really we are seeing decreasing attention spans as a result of video games.  Compare any Hollywood movie made before about 1950 with any one made after about 1990 in the following manner.  Start the movie, mute the sound, turn off all the lights and turn your chair away from the screen, so all you see is the reflected glow from the TV.  In the pre-1950 movie, one sees a steady glow reflection for about half a minute or more at a time.  The modern movie is constant flash flash flash, change every 5 seconds or so.

I understand the point you are making but I have to draw some
attention to the matter-of-fact way you depict the cause and effect
with "...decreasing attention spans as a result  of video games."
That's too simple.  It's been shoved on us too many times without any
convincing proof.  I grew up with "video games" and resent this
attack.  :)  Anyone who has spent 60+ hours to beat a modern
immersion-style puzzle would not claim their attention is reduced by
such an obsession.  Those old Atari games held my attention for hours
despite being fairly basic and repetitive.  At 10 years old, Tunnels
of Doom on a TI99/4a was a week's worth of work for an 8 floor
dungeon.  How is does that shorten attention span?

Blame TV all you want, but don't throw video games under the
proverbial bus simply because they're an easy scapegoat.  It's surely
those 1950's generation TV shows that started the decline...  Or maybe
it was technicolor that started it - life was far better in black &
white.  No, perhaps it was the horseless carriage driving all over at
reckless top speeds of 30mph:  humans could no longer afford the
luxury of a stroll down the country lane without some young punk and
his car ruining the pastoral beauty.  Maybe it goes back to the
locomotive; all that rapid transit made us care if cattle would make
it to market before the end of next week.  That started our obsession
with getting things done in reasonable time.  I don't think I can go
much farther back... it's just a blur of thousands of years walking
around bashing animals with rocks and other crude tools... all the way
back to that first monkey who touched the monolith.

I think my point is that there are numerous cooperating influences
that shorten our attention span.  We had the eyes of a predator facing
forward with focus on our prey, we're adapting to eyes of the prey on
both sides of our heads for constant vigilance.  Yes; everything is
moving faster and we're barely able to twitch quickly enough to keep
up...

> Now compare any modern court drama with the 1950s Perry Mason equivalent.  Discussions go on in the courtroom for ten minutes at a time, and one must concentrate for that entire time to follow the remarkably complex story lines.  We have mostly lost the ability or the desire to do that now.  We can take in information faster, but we expect to have more control over our information input.  Our attention spans have shortened.   I welcome Stathis' comments on this.
>
> This takes me to something I am worrying a lot about recently: how education is reacting to shortened attention spans, not just in children but in all of us.  They still expect kids to sit still and listen to a teacher deliver a lecture.  Many are called ADD, when they might just be jumpy and bored.
>
> We have failed to adjust education as our computers have adjusted us.

On this point I completely agree.  Education is dangerously overdue
for innovation.