This could explain why people seem to be getting stupider with each passing generation.

A recent survey of eight-to 18-year-olds, [neurobiologist Susan Greenfield] says, suggests they are spending 6.5 hours a day using electronic media, and multi-tasking (using different devices in parallel) is rocketing. Could this be having an impact on thinking and learning?

She begins by analysing the process of traditional book-reading, which involves following an author through a series of interconnected steps in a logical fashion. We read other narratives and compare them, and so "build up a conceptual framework that enables us to evaluate further journeys... One might argue that this is the basis of education ... It is the building up of a personalised conceptual framework, where we can relate incoming information to what we know already. We can place an isolated fact in a context that gives it significance." Traditional education, she says, enables us to "turn information into knowledge."

Put like that, it is obvious where her worries lie. The flickering up and flashing away again of multimedia images do not allow those connections, and therefore the context, to build up. Instant yuk or wow factors take over. Memory, once built up in a verbal and reading culture, matters less when everything can be summoned at the touch of a button (or, soon, with voice recognition, by merely speaking). In a short attention-span world, fed with pictures, the habit of contemplation and the patient acquisition of knowledge are in retreat.

Is this, perhaps, the source of the hyperactivity and attention deficit malaise now being treated with industrial quantities of Ritalin, Prozac and other drugs to help sustain attention in the classroom? If so, what will these drugs do in turn to the brain?

I for one have serious memory issues which i've deduced is caused by a general lack of attention. You can't really remember something you didn't really hear, can you? And i think everyone's noticed a general inability for most people to follow a logical argument. Just look at the lead up to the invasion of Iraq and the WMD arguments. Then consider the continued support of the Bush administration and the invasion even after the confirmed revelation that there were in fact no WMD.

Does it also bleed into regular everyday conversation? How many times have you talked to someone and asked them a question and received a lengthy reply that had nothing to do with your question? We just caught a snippet from some Stargate SG-1 episode as we were flipping thru the channels looking for the Spider-man and His Amazing Friends i was promised would be on the tv. MacGuyver asks the guy something like, "How do you know he won't kill people?" and the guy answers, "It's his choice. They're fighting for their people, their freedom. They've got the conviction to do it." Or something like that. Our first reaction was "that's not what he asked." Looking at MacGuyver's face, i think he felt the same way. And yet this is considered a suitable reply. At least to the writers who scripted the episode. And i think you have experienced it yourself in real life.

Has it always been like this? Or is it related to losing our "conceptual framework"? Mebbe people have always been dumb, and we just think the ones we have to deal have to be stupider than the ones who came before? If we admit we always were this stupid, it starts to boggle the mind that the human race wasn't killed off sooner.

Meh. I think people always think the kids are getting dumber. The truth is, multitasking can actually make you smarter. People who have the ability to juggle multiple tasks at once are much more effective than people who have to sit on focus on one thing and see it through to completion before moving on to something else. I work at a small company where we're always managing multiple projects at the same time. I've seen a number of times where we have hired people from big corporations who are used to working on project A until it is complete before moving on to something new. And they can't handle it here. You need a mind that is agile enough to jump from one thing to another and still be up to speed.

I also wanted to say... Macguyver.

i don't think it's the multitasking that's the problem. inability to multitask is a sign of stupidity, imo.

i think the problem is the flashing images, unfocused bombardment that results in people who have comprehension deficiencies because their brains are only engaged by the pretty lights and moving pictures.

the question is are those kids truly multi-tasking? they prolly can't remember half of what they said or did or watched. that's not multi-tasking. it's sensory bombardment.

it's a problem. after avian flu knocks off a few poor souls, but before global warming kills the rest, we'll be saturated in media without context with no time left to blink until there is no one left to produce original content. (i say this because i spent another evening enslaved by flashing doodads. hurry down doomsday!)

Jello Biafra? I think it'd be cool if flashing lights turned us all into politically motivated singers.

Sorry, I couldn't concentrate to actually read the post. It's long.

Give me a summary of an outline of the bullet points.