Cherie’s Supper
Club Speech
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Final CD Supper Club Jan16 Digital Distractions & Digital Overload Final
1.
Digital Distractions & Digital Overload: Maybe Nicholas Carr (The
Shallows) was right! Supper Club Speech--Jan. 19th 2016 Cherie Dargan
2. Overview
• Watch a brief interview with Nicholas Carr, author of the best
seller, The Shallows • Consider evidence of digital distractions
and digital overload -- infographics • Discuss several compelling
quotes from the book The Shallows • Share experiences working with
students in face to face and online classes struggling to focus •
Suggest a prescription for all of us wanting to learn how to focus in
the midst of distraction
3. The
Problem: I want MORE I’m writing a weekly blog and really enjoying
it. ….I love doing research online with my PC, iPad, or iPhone, but
find myself searching for more information even when I think I have
enough. There is a hunger, a desire, even a lust for MORE
information, and more visually based information—photos, videos,
and infographics. Turns out, I’m not alone.
4. We’re
spending 11 hours a day on media, including our various devices with
screens! http://www.geekwire.com/2015/nielsen-
reports-that-the-average-american-adult-
spends-11-hours-per-day-on-gadgets/ Nielsen reports on media usage:
chart by Statista
5. Mobile
Devices give us Access to the Web, 24/7
6. Look
at how much more we can do online! HCC, Spring 2012 -- iPad pilot.
Apps, Social Media, Games, HCC websites. London Internet Cafe, March
1999—Mike checks his email.
7. We
have too much to do! (email, files, pics, posts, texts) We are living
in the age of digital overload—we get too many texts, email
messages, social media posts, tweets, pins, & alerts to read and
respond to in any given day. We are filling up our hard drives. We
can't keep up with the flow of information, entertainment, news, and
cat videos. We don’t want to miss out on anything!
8. The
Data Explosion (2014) (Infographic)
http://aci.info/2014/07/12/the-data-explosion-in-2014-minute-by-minute-infographic/
Susan Gunelius. “Data Never Sleeps. The Data Explosion in 2014,
Minute by Minute – Infographic.” JULY 12, 2014 According to this
article, every minute: · Facebook users share nearly 2.5 million
pieces of content. · Twitter users tweet nearly 300,000 times. ·
Instagram users post nearly 220,000 new photos. · YouTube users
upload 72 hours of new video content. · Apple users download nearly
50,000 apps. · Email users send over 200 million messages. · Amazon
generates over $80,000 in online sales.
9. Infographic
on the Brain & What it Wants!
http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/ “13 Reasons The Brain
Craves Infographics” (The animated version: a timer at the bottom
tells you how long you have been reading the infographic). What is an
Infographic? A visual packed with facts.
10. A
few facts from “13 Reasons” 1) The use of visualized information
has increased · 400% in literature since 1990 and 9900% on the
internet since 2007. 142% in newspapers between 1985 and 1994 2) We
are visually wired: Almost 50% of your brain is involved in visual
processing and 70% of your sensory receptors are in your eyes 3)
Infographics help because we suffer from information overload We get
5 times the information as we did in 1986 We get 34 gigabytes of
information (or 100,500 words) on an average day. On average, we only
read 28% of words per visit
11. “13
Reasons Your Brain Craves Infographics”
12. The
Interview with Nicholas Carr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI “What the Internet is
Doing to Our Brains.” Published on May 6, 2013. Interview with
Nicholas Carr, the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing
to Our Brains.
13. Follow
up to the video I use this video with my Composition students and it
helps them to understand what is happening in their brains when they
go online. If you are interested, you can check out the companion
video that explains some of the “hidden gems” in the video. I’ll
send out the link to the presentation on Google Docs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf_-5VHiR0 -- Hidden Gems in, "What
the Internet is Doing to our Brains"
14. Nicholas
Carr’s website http://www.nicholascarr.com/
15. True
Confessions: Not a Fan at first! When the book The Shallows first
came out, I gave it a quick look and thought it was rather
pessimistic, and put it aside. I was looking for a highly readable
text for my students, and didn’t think this was it! As one of my
favorite professors, Dr. Bob from Buena Vista would say, there aren’t
many pictures and lots of big words. Lately, I’ve been taking
another look…..
16. Why
is this digital distraction happening? The net is changing how we
respond to information as well as how people are formatting
information online (little chunks of info, lots of visuals) We aren’t
reading as much and the way we read is changing (scanning and
skimming) Carr argues that our brains are being rewired and that we
are constantly seeing new information. We are also being OVERLOADED
with information!
17. Carr:
Switch from Reading to Power Browsing Most Web pages are viewed for
less than 20 seconds. The switch from reading to power-browsing is
happening very quickly and it represents a deeper change in our
thinking. The digital environment encourages people to explore
broadly but at a superficial level. Patience with reading long
documents is decreasing. There is a compelling urge to skip ahead.
Skimming is becoming the dominant mode of reading. Of course there
are compensations, positive aspects of this. Every medium develops
some cognitive skills at the expense of others. (pages 135-139)
18. Carr:
The Net is an interruption system "The Net is, by design, an
interruption system, a machine geared for dividing attention."
(131) "Frequent interruptions scatter our thoughts, weaken our
memory, and make us tense and anxious." (132) "The
near-continuous stream of new information pumped out by the Web also
plays to our natural tendency to 'vastly overvalue what happens to us
right now….'" (134)
19. The
map, the clock and the book Without going into too many details, Carr
argues that humans have been changed by these three inventions--or
tools of the mind, as he calls them. Maps gave us a sense of where we
are and where we want to go: they helped us to make sense of the
world Clocks gave us a way to measure time but also changed the way
we saw things, as people began to divide time up into chunks, with
certain times reserved for certain activities (Chapter 3) The Clock
and map also gave us new metaphors and expanded language and thought.
Books came along later and brought more changes (chapter 4).
20. Books,
Gutenberg & literacy Carr discusses the development of writing,
and its significance, as well as the role of Gutenberg’s printing
press in chapter 4. He describes it as one of the most important
inventions in history (69). Francis Bacon wrote that only the
inventions of gunpowder and the compass had impacted human affairs as
much. •The number of books produced in the 50 years after
Gutenberg’s invention equaled the number produced by scribes during
the previous 1000 years (69) •It became possible to buy books, to
have libraries, and literacy was encouraged. •By the end of the
15th century, more than 250 towns had a printing press and produced
over 12 million books.
21. Carr:
the screen VS. the book "After 550 years, the printing press and
its products are being pushed from the center of our intellectual
life to its edges." "The world of the screen…is a very
different place from the world of the page. A new intellectual ethic
is taking hold. The pathways in our brains are once again being
rerouted." (77)
22. Distracted
& Overloaded!
23. Signs
of Digital Overload * · My drop box alerts me that it is full and
will not sync until I remove some files. · My sister calls because
she can no longer upload new pictures to her computer: I talk her
through the steps and we rediscover she has filled up her hard drive
with pictures and videos. · Apple offers to switch my iCloud account
to double the storage for about the same amount of money. I did it on
the spot and watched my storage space DOUBLE instantly. (Who says you
can’t buy happiness?) · My students tease me whenever I bring up
my Hawkeye Email-- you have a thousand unread messages??!! Yes, I
subscribe to a lot of email newsletters! (from my Blog Post for Nov.
20 -- Digital Overload)
24. The
Net is subsuming our other technologies It is "becoming our
typewriter and our printing press, our map and our clock, our
calculator and our telephone, our post office and our library, our
radio and our TV." (83) We never really have to disconnect. TV
watching has not declined but we are devoting much less time to
reading words printed on paper. The old technologies become a
cultural dead end. The new technologies govern production and
consumption, guide people's behavior and shape their perceptions.
(89) Changes in the form change how we use, experience and understand
the content. (from The Shallows)
25. The
Book VS. The Web "Research continues to show that people who
read linear text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than
those who read text peppered with links." (127) Ironically,
Geeky Grandma loves her Kindle and ebooks, while the majority of my
students say they prefer print books but do not seem to “read”
them very carefully.
26. An
Aha moment! My students stare down at their smartphones--to check the
time, to check for a new text, to check their scores on the Canvas
app (our online CMS), or to check for an email that I just mentioned
sending to their class. Some read an ebook and many have used the
navigation on their phone to get to a new destination. They don’t
tote around big laptops for the most part: the smartphone is their
clock, map, and book.
27. Technology’s
impact on Higher Ed (Go Web) What have we seen in the past 20 years?
From chalk boards to smart boards, and internet access in classroom
From Books to eBooks, plus YouTube Videos, and online course
management systems for all classes, whether online or F2F
Consolidation of book publishers who are investing heavily in online
tools Teachers report attendance and final grades online Email and
other communication tools encourage communication with students, who
would rather text, call or email than show up at the office Most
teachers give some or all of their tests online, and create drop
boxes for assignments which are graded online, so tie into an online
gradebook
28. Technology
and Workload I found a wonderful quote by Richard Beasley on a blog
post about Digital Overload: “If you are not careful, technology
can actually increase your workload rather than increase your
productivity.” This was my experience this past fall, when we
switched to a new Course Management system. I had no idea how much
time it would take to recreate five websites & then grade almost
all online.
29. Do
the math...1100 hours on Canvas, Fall 15 I spend many hours online
during my workday, using Canvas, our new Course management System to
teach both Face to face and online classes. I use Canvas for tests
and worksheets, collect work with drop boxes, post announcements, and
have all of my handouts organized in five separate webspaces, one for
each class. By Finals in December, I had spent approximately 1100
hours on Canvas. That works out to 61 hours a week for 18 weeks (from
the first week of August, rebuilding those websites through Finals,
grading final essays and exams, and recording final scores). That is
8.7 hours a day, 7 days a week. I also spent time IN class!
30. Reward?
Tendonitis in my Shoulder
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000438.htm
31. Other
Effects: Stress, Exhaustion The effects of digital overload leave us
exhausted and overwhelmed. They distract us, delay us, and take our
time and energy. Like the ancient Greek God who pushed a rock up the
mountain only to have it roll back down, we end the day sometimes
feeling triumph that we’ve checked certain tasks off the list,
answered email, graded, responded to students, recorded points,
tweeted, texted, posted responses to a status update done early in
the day—and just as we go to turn away from our PC or laptop or
iPad or Smartphone, we realize there are new messages, new tweets,
new texts, and all of our progress seems undone. And, we are the
grown-ups! What is it doing to our young people?
32. Social
Media: an “ugly, evil distraction” Last semester I had several
startling conversations with a handful of students who confessed they
are struggling with college, having a hard time paying attention in
class, and not able to focus on their homework for long due to
digital distraction. A number of my Composition students wrote about
it in their essays. One girl called her addiction to social media an
“ugly, evil distraction” that led to her flunking a class in high
school—and not being able to participate in a sport she loved. That
was her wakeup call.
33. Digital
distractions in teens given laptops 1:1 The first girl confessed to
me that her High School had been early adopters of the One to One
program in 2010—giving every student and teacher a shiny new
laptop. She had been thrilled and quickly found herself on Twitter,
Facebook and Pinterest, where she had organized ideas for decorating
rooms; unfortunately, her homework was always last on the list. Her
school rushed into the project without a lot of planning, and
teachers were not prepared or trained. Classes were chaotic in the
early days, with too much time for students to spend on social media,
ignoring assignments. She told me, “my brain was elsewhere...taking
pictures, posting stupid tweets, and reblogging pictures.”
34. Not
just an isolated case…. I heard variations of this story half a
dozen times more and my concerns grew. Several students used almost
the same words to describe the battle in their minds for getting
organized, getting homework done, and staying off social media and/or
their phones in class and later at home, while they were supposedly
studying. Then, I read a report on CNN that freaked me out!
35. Being
13 -- Special CNN Report (Oct. 2015) CNN’s Anderson Cooper did a
special report on “Being 13: Inside the world of Teens” (Hadad),
and found that many of these kids check social media 100 and even 200
times a day. Teens don’t post that often; instead, they lurk to see
if others liked their postings, or to see if anyone is saying mean
things about them. Likes are a way to measure popularity. They also
take LOTS of selfies--100 or more, to get that perfect picture. The
study looked at 200 teens and included an analysis of 150,000 posts
and messages by two trained psychologists. According to CNN’s
Hadad, “The level of profanity, explicit sexual language and
references to drug use surprised the experts, considering the study's
subjects were only in eighth grade.”
36. Competing
for attention
37. What
can you teach in 15 minutes? If teens are checking their social media
and texts 100 times a day, let’s narrow that down into 15 hours,
from 7 am to 10 pm, and that means that every 15 minutes, teens are
on their phones checking for updates or uploading selfies. If they
are checking 200 times a day, that goes down to every 7 minutes. What
can you accomplish in 7 minutes between checking for updates on
social media? How about in 15 minutes? How do we teach children to
problem solve, think critically, or reflect in 7 minutes? How do they
learn complex Math and Science concepts and master formulas in 7
minutes?
38. What’s
going on? Being 13 Then & Now Think about what it was like when
you were 13, sitting in an 8th grade class: maybe you were lucky and
had at least one friend in there. You might write and pass a note,
but you were expected to have the book open, be taking notes or
working on math problems or completing a worksheet over something you
read for class. If caught, your note might be read by the teacher—or
you might be asked to read it out loud. NOW, think about a classroom
FULL of 13 year olds all with smartphones: for one thing, it would be
noisy with lots of little alerts that new tweets, posts, and text
messages were waiting for attention. How does the teacher compete for
their attention? Or should she just sit back and check her own
smartphone? According to the National Education Association, many
schools are lifting bans on the use of cellphones in the classroom
(Kinjo) and the Pew Reports did not seem to indicate that phones were
staying in backpacks, purses and pockets during class.
39. What
is ahead for these 13 year olds? My student wrote, “ I hope that
students, teachers, parents, and members of communities can see the
problem that is becoming an epidemic, and they will do something to
fix it for themselves, their children, and their future.” She hopes
to become a teacher herself and worries that her students will be
giving their attention to their devices instead of her. How are we
going to deal with these students and their mobile devices? How
successful are they going to be in their educations and careers, much
less their relationships? I’m retiring so I don’t have to look
forward to teaching these students: but I already see digital
distraction and digital overload in my college students.
40. My
college students: Hypervigilant & Impatient Attending to every
audible alert or vibration of their smartphones is destroying their
focus, and eroding their ability to go more than a few minutes
without checking their phones for a new text, tweet, photo, or status
update. As noted earlier, the mere mention of grading an assignment
sends them to their phones to check grades; furthermore, there is an
impatience on the part of students to have work graded, and I
sometimes have to say, “Look—this isn’t the drive through
window at McDonalds! It takes time.”
41. Is
a lack of focus the new normal? As I near the end of my teaching
career, I wonder what is down the road for Education at all levels.
Students need the ability to focus on a piece of text in order to
read, analyze and write about it; they need to concentrate in order
to solve mathematical problems, do their science labs and write up
the results, and listen to short lectures and then engage in
discussion. Digital distraction and digital overload make those
things difficult, if not impossible.
42. What
needs to happen? Some Proposals…. • Read Carr’s books. (The
Shallows, 2010 and The Glass Cage, 2014) • Make the Jitterbug the
phone for ten year olds! (Why do ten year olds need phones? Some
phones are now marketed to SIX year olds!) • Educate parents,
teachers, school boards, and administrators: BAN STUDENTS from having
phones in the classroom, since it leads to continual use of them to
the expense of focus and attention. If they aren’t checking them
every 15 minutes or taking selfies, maybe they can focus and learn!
43. Some
Proposals, cont. • Make sure students are ready for 1 to 1 programs
as well as the teachers, infrastructure, and curriculum. • Educate
parents about digital devices and young children: limit the time
spent on the devices. • Teach students how to unplug from
technology in order to reflect, read critically, and focus. • Some
students (and adults) need serious intervention and some digital
detox!
44. Here
is help: Digital Detox, anyone? http://www.digitalblackout.org/about/
Digital blackout website--has a program to help schools show students
the value of unplugging. CAN THEY GO THREE DAYS WITHOUT FACEBOOK?
TWITTER? TEXTING? WHAT MIGHT THEY LEARN?
45. More
Practical Suggestions I give my students • Set priorities for each
day. I carry a small clipboard with me to classes and meetings: it
helps me to keep on task and make note of things I need to do. •
Get something done before you let yourself get sucked into social
media early in the day. Those cat videos, political rants, holiday
recipes, and photos of the grandchildren can wait • TURN OFF ALL OF
THE ALERTS that you can possibly handle on your smartphone, tablet,
and laptop.
46. More
Practical Suggestions, cont. • Lower our expectations! It’s okay
to reflect before firing off an answer to an email or text. It’s
not a speed test in High School typing class. (Youngsters, ask a Baby
Boomer about “typing” classes). • Set aside time each week to
delete the glut of digital data clogging up our lives and PCs. •
Evaluate email newsletters and unsubscribe when possible! •
Consider making mealtimes a device-free zone: Make eye contact,
smile, and talk. Wow!
47. How
to Focus: a Mind Map The mind map was created by Jane Genovese.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36451078204422650/ As an image pinned
on Pinterest http://learningfundamentals.com.au/presentations/focus/
Posted on her website.
48. Mind
map
49. What
do you think??? So, what about us -- the grown ups? Engineers,
Professors, Librarians, Business people, Journalists...are we any
better? In spite of spending 1100 hours online in the fall, I still
like reading print magazines and newspapers, and read both ebooks &
print books. I often pack my iPad, iPhone, a small notebook or
clipboard. I see many of you with smartphones, tablets, and hear you
discussing books you’ve read. So, do those of us who read for
decades before we went online have any different hard wiring? are we
better able to withstand the onslaught of digital distraction and
overload?
50. What
do you think, cont.? • Have you noticed more people staring down,
not making eye contact, and more focused on their devices during a
meeting, meal, or while out in public? • Have you found yourself
feeling distracted and overloaded by your devices? • Are you
concerned about the findings of the CNN Report about 13 year olds,
and surprised at all? • Do you see any strategies on the mind map
that you are using?
51. Works
Cited http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/ “13 Reasons The
Brain Craves Infographics.” Neomam.com. Carr, Nicholas. The
Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Norton. 2011
http://www.nicholascarr.com/ Nicholas Carr website
http://www.digitalblackout.org/about/Digital Detox.
Digitalblackout.org.
52. Works
Cited, cont. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/432697476678222230/
Genovese, Jane. “How to Focus in the Age of Distraction.”
Pinterest pin.
http://aci.info/2014/07/12/the-data-explosion-in-2014-minute-by-
minute-infographic/ Gunelius, Susan. “Data Never Sleeps. The Data
Explosion in 2014: Minute by Minute.” Infographic. 12 July 2014.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/05/health/being-13-teens-social-media-study/
Hadad, Chuck. “Being 13: Teens and Social Media Study.” CNN. Oct.
13, 2015
53. Works
Cited, cont. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf_-5VHiR0 Hidden Gems
in, "What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.“
http://www.statista.com/chart/1971/electronic-media-use/ Richter,
Felix. “Americans Use Electronic Media 11+ Hours A Day Mar 13, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI “What the Internet is
Doing to Our Brains.” Published on May 6, 2013.
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/the-shallows-notes-review/
Notes from The Shallows – from vialogue.wordpress.com
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