Normally this falls out of our purview, but this editor [Donna] is musing on whether filling out EMRs online, reading the tidal wave of telehealth data on screens and phones, and having more test reports arrive directly onto mobile platforms, will add to the further decline of the cognitive skills of health professionals and their ability to diagnose and to see the patient as a whole. What triggered it was the strange news from the Wall Street Journal that the scattered and distracted feeling you get after multi-tasking online, emails and on your smartphone (that’s taken over your life) has become the norm and
according to this article, research studies now prove that it’s turning us into superficial thinkers who comprehend less, not more, and may actually be changing our brains. (In other words, we’re all ADD now.) Quoting an overview of dozens of studies on the effect of screen-based media, there are “new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes,” including “abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination.”
For your contemplation: Does the internet make you dumber? The other side of the coin: Does the internet make you smarter? And if your concentration can only survive one article, here’s a compare/contrast of the two from MobileBeyond.