According to data from Assisted Living Today, social media has shortened our attention span from 12 minutes, 20 years ago, to 5 seconds long in the present day and age. With the constant barrage of text messages, status alerts, news updates and video montages, it’s no wonder why the attention spans of those connected are waning.  Our minds are constantly being interrupted while we multitask at work, at home or even in the car.  In fact, I bet you have a hard time remembering the last time you were sitting idle and didn’t reach for your smart phone to check email, scores, or browse the latest tweets made by your favorite celeb just to fill the void. And why wouldn’t you? 

The internet is designed to distract. With over a million apps all wrapped with a pretty bow promising instant gratification, there’s just not enough hours in the day to keep up with all the new content. Recently, I’ve noticed a shift where my mind no longer retains what I’m reading and instead, seems to remember the optimal Google search terms best used for locating that piece of information again. Switching from a library full of books, my brain is evolving to form a large indexed card catalog. I remember the highlights, but oftentimes it’s because I’m skimming articles instead of reading them in their entirety. In fact, I bet you’re skimming this one right now.

Originally for sharing and creating information, the internet has evolved into an ideal place to escape the pressures of reality and essentially “kill time.” Spending hours each day playing games or surfing the web with no real intent not only impacts our focus and learning, but also alters our critical thinking abilities. According to “The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember” by Nicholas Carr, certain brain cells are neglected if we don’t use focused thinking, and ultimately those pathways will fall apart. This constant distraction causes a reduction of short-term memory, increased stress levels and the creation of people who do not think clearly or well.  

So the real question is whether technology is rotting our brains or simply altering the way we process information? As a whole, we’re forming global connections, collaborating more and reaching new levels of innovation as we build on the advances made before us. Constantly ducking and dodging information being thrown our way, I think we’re fortunate for the opportunity to pick and choose which information we’re most interested in exploring further. With a 10 minute YouTube video, you too can tile a bathroom floor, fix a garbage disposal, or learn how to Dougie. Not embracing technology seems to me like the first step toward becoming irreversibly out-of-date – but at what cost?

What do you think? Do you think social media and technology are altering the way our brains function? And is this a positive or a negative thing?