Brain Candy

So much for the idea that TV and video games will rot my brain! :)

Something not really delved into in this article, but perhaps in the book that the article references, is that dealing with the rapid cuts MTV pioneered, video games requiring fast reflexes, and fifteen different ways to stay connected to everything ... somehow we have developed the ability to (I refuse to call it multi-tasking) manage several streams of information simultaneously. It's this, more than anything, that I think is responsible for the expanding abilities of our brains.

Kids today are trained to understand concepts that previous generations can't wrap their heads around, not because they're not as smart, necessarily, but because the ideas are more commonplace today. Many people have difficulty following a movie like "Memento", while younger kids find it hardly even taxes them to mangage two stories, one of which is told reverse-chronologically.

I think that "ADD" is a bit misunderstood. I find that my brain craves stimulous, and that I'll just soak up information when presented to me in a quick fashion, or if I can let part of my brain work on something else while I'm processing the new information. I concentrate better with a TV on, or music, or some sort of outside stimulous, breaking up the uptake of information into chunks. I can then take in those chunks faster.

I'm rambling a bit, but I think that there is definitely some merit to this concept that it's the very things people think are wrong with today's youth and "entertainment culture" that are promoting our increased thinking abilities. Kind of like how decades ago, parents thought that Rock and Roll would be the end of society.

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