[ExI] Why the modern world is bad for your brain

[BillK]

In an era of email, text messages, Facebook and Twitter, we're all
required to do several things at once. But this constant multitasking
is taking its toll. Here neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin explains how
our addiction to technology is making us less efficient.
<http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/18/modern-world-bad-for-brain-daniel-j-levitin-organized-mind-information-overload>
Quote:
Our brains are busier than ever before. We're assaulted with facts,
pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumour, all posing as information.
Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is
exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more.
But there's a fly in the ointment. Although we think we're doing
several things at once, multitasking, this is a powerful and
diabolical illusion. Earl Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT and one of
the world experts on divided attention, says that our brains are "not
wired to multitask well... When people think they're multitasking,
they're actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly.
And every time they do, there's a cognitive cost in doing so."
----------

Some of the article comments are interesting also.
e.g. Is it better to do 60%-70% of many tasks or 100% of a few tasks?
Is this why customer service is so poor? Nobody does a proper job
anymore. Every task takes several back and forths to get it done
right?

Is our future a descent into trivia?

BillK