The Impact of Internet on Thinking - Essay Example

Despite this the internet has many advantages on the way people think. My research question is: does the web shorten our attention spans? Attention span can be defined as the ability of a person to concentrate on a task without distraction. Attention varies with age and is measured by the time we spend continuously on a particular task. No, the internet does not shorten our span of attention as the studies conducted have shown that adults who spend time on the web boosted their brain power and also helped in preventing cognitive turn down like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Spending time on the internet is beneficial to both adults and the young people. To the young the web has been of great importance as they use the internet as a tool of education and has registered positive effects on their academic performance. However the exposure of the web to children at a younger age should be minimal and if necessary, can be increased moderately with time and age as studies show that the use of web increases attention of the adults better than the children (Dreyfus 60).

The use of the web has made people to function like computers as they are able to receive, encode process and retrieve information faster than before and have become adapted to multi-tasking as a result of engaging or brains into activity. The attention span has improved because when people spend time on the web, this means that they spend time reading and studies have shown that students who spend at least 30 minutes on the internet have been shown to perform better. The use of the web keeps our brains active and improves our efficiency as well as our attention span.

The brain has a nature of a muscle and therefore needs regular exercise, when we use the web, the brain is engaged in some activity and therefore it becomes more attentive. Failure to engage the brain makes it to be passive and thus lowers the span of attention. Most people have are easily distracted when reading a book than when on the web. The monotonous nature of the book makes one to be easily distracted unlike when one is on the web. The web has interesting things and one can learn new information at a very short time.

Most people can concentrate for about 30 minutes when not using the internet and this span increases when they are using the web. The reason behind this is that the web has a lot of new, interesting information and this makes the person to want to learn more and therefore ends up concentrating on a particular task for a long period without getting distracted or bored (Brockman 176). The use of the web has enabled people to easily access information and learn new information unlike when not using the internet where people may spend a lot of time looking for specific information at the libraries for a long time.

However, precaution is necessary as the use of the web has its setbacks among them is addiction to the wrong information. Studies conducted in the past have shown that students who are use the internet regularly do not use the internet in a productive way as they may be on social network sites ( Dreyfus 87). Most institutions are coming up with ways in which they can divert their attention from these social networking sites and makes their time when using the web more productive. The institutions are blocking the accessibility of these sites when students are in the institution and can only access the sites when they leave school.