Great discussion on the (un)reality of multitasking and how our uses of new media might be affecting our ability to concentrate even when we aren’t plugged in. Rebecca Roberts speaks with Lee Rainie, Founding Director of Pew Internet & American Life Project, and Clifford Nass, Stanford Professor and Founder and Director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Laboratory.
A very rich discussion, wherein (among other things) the topic is broached of human adaptation to tools (“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us”) and how our tools, especially now, have outpaced our cognitive abilities to the point where we are experiencing an overload of information that necessitates some form of multitasking. Interestingly, they don’t bring up the progress we’ve made in solving this problem (apps that organize and filter information, the semantic web and HTML 5, among other things).
Check it out. Definitely thought-provoking.
Tagged: cognition, multitasking, new media, psychology, technology