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Marc My Words: Will Social Media Rot Our Brains?
Inlast month’s column, I talked about my journey into socialnetworking, which, I must admit, has become more fun and useful thanI thought it would. But…
Agreat Dilbert cartoon depicts a low-level analyst presenting herreport on a competitor’s product. It’s thorough andcomprehensive, but by the time it gets to the CEO, it’s down tojust a single bullet point. We’ve all been there; told by a manageror a client to get our data, findings, and recommendations down to asingle page or a couple of slides, and we’ve been frustrated thatincreasingly, people just don’t want to get into the details.Although troubling, this would not be a big concern if we were justtalking about slide presentations compensating for CEO attentionspans. But the growing reliance on the Internet, and on social mediaspecifically, to transmit information is causing concern that newmedia are changing the way we communicate and learn, and not totallyfor the better.
There’sa growing wave of interest in this issue. For example, in his newbook, The Shallows:What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains,Nicholas Carr argues that the Internet, while a very handy resourcefor information, may, by its very usefulness and design — quickhyperlinks and the ability to “surf” large amounts of content —be depriving us of the ability to think deeply and concentrate, andis shortening our attention span. Nicolas Carr also wrote theinteresting AtlanticMonthly article, “IsGoogle Making us Stupid?”
Onemust wonder, in an age of instant messaging, Facebook, and Twitter,if are we headed down a road to more chatter, but less understandingand less learning? Are we sacrificing complexity for triviality? Aremessages and information so bombarding us that we can’t take in theknowledge? Yes and no.
Yes, it’s a big problem
Mostworking adults today were raised and educated with an emphasis onreading and writing. We read books we may not have liked and actuallyhad to discuss what we read. We wrote essays and substantial termpapers, and were graded on our thought processes as well as oncontent and grammar. In many schools today, including some collegesand universities, there is much less of this. Slide presentationssubstitute for papers, as if speaking in bullet points and writingare the same thing. For a great and funny example, check outLincoln’s Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint,https://norvig.com/Gettysburg.
Thereis growing concern that, for the next generation of workers, basicliteracy could be in jeopardy, anda genuine fear that an obsession with messaging of all forms can leadto mindless, and mind numbing, activity. Already, tech-savvy kidswould much rather text than talk, but at140 characters per message, are they communicating? Are personalconversations, human interaction, and the very nature of deepthinking suffering? Are we rapidly moving to a “sound bite”culture?
Thevery abundance of knowledge and its ease of access can lead topromulgating (posting, re-tweeting, etc.) content without everreading, verifying, or understanding it ourselves. The Internet isfull of great content, but it is twice as full of worthless drivel.We can just as easily share bad information as valuable information.Without specific research skills, expert guidance, or time to explorea topic in depth, and without a discerning eye for what’s valuableand what’s not, are we left to just cut and paste information as ifthe Web was the world’s largest “Cliff Notes?”
No, it’s a great opportunity
Newways of doing things always have a learning curve. Once we get pastour inflated expectations and subsequent concerns, we’ll likelyadapt just fine. Sure, the technology has changed. So what? Weren’tthere dire warnings that radio, then television would rot our brains?While some bemoan the death of printed books, digital devices likeAmazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad may actually make reading morepopular. Although lagging, schools will eventually figure out how touse the Web more critically and develop new information-consumingskills in our kids, the generation that Marc Prensky refers to as“digital natives,” and they will be much more ready to masterthis new world than we “digital immigrants” ever were.
Farfrom being discarded, writing is exploding on the social Web. Withmillions of blogs on the Internet, more people are writing in thisnew format than are writing in books or magazines. Increasingly,thoughtful conversation is taking place online. In the workplace,more people actually know what’s going on, thanks to technology.And social networking not only links workers in distant locations andimproves productivity; it enables everyone to become better contentconsumers and more thoughtful content contributors. In a world wherethe amount of information is exponentially increasing, but itshalf-life is steadily decreasing, technology, including social media,may be the only way we can keep up.
What to do
Thedebate is far from over. The key for now is neither running fromtechnology nor blindly embracing it. We must understand and manage itbetter, including balancing the hype, the promise, and the realitiesof new media. We cannot be smart users of technology if we are notalso smart consumers of technology-delivered content. Technology,including social networking, cannot compensate for a lack of criticalthinking abilities, skill mastery, or deep expertise. All requirelong-term investments in learning, which is why high quality,rigorous education and training still matter — a lot. This combinedwith a focus on three Web-savvy competencies — digital literacy,technology consumerism, and content criticism, starting with childrenand extending into the workplace, will go a long way.
Whatare we training, learning, and performance professionals going to doabout this? How can we reap the benefits of social media and the Webwhile avoiding the pitfalls? Embracing the technology du jour,tweeting about it, or writing a column about it in an onlinemagazine, is not enough.
