Of excess ...

I have read many comments on the Internet which suggest that the internet and all technology are making people stupid [link]. Here are some of my thoughts:

Surely the Internet came to change our lives, I remember when I was 10, I did not have Internet at home or mobile phone, and I used to play outdoors, go into the bushes, trying to find secret paths and places, exploring nature, and collecting butterflies ... I had a wonderful childhood. I wonder how many today's children possess the same passion for nature and exploration; sadly video games and the internet have substituted many of our playground games.

On the other hand, I have learned lots thanks to the Internet. The last 6 years of my life, I have done research on information science, and I can say without hesitation that my research would have been several times much more difficult without it.

Have you ever wonder how scientists before the Internet managed and yet without it, some of the greatest inventions and discoveries of human history were done. Today’s new technologies, to my eyes, are rather dazzling than revolutionary.

I came across the following graph, taken from [link], if we take "big inventions" as a measure of human creativeness, according to this graph higher number of big inventions occurred during 1875-1975 than in current years. Thereafter, we could tagged our generation as less creative than the previous ones :(.



So … What is happening?, if we supposed to be able to share information easier and faster through the Internet, should not new ideas and creativeness be flourishing? The Internet is really helping or limiting our imagination and creativeness?

There is a RSA Video (video) on “Changing education paradigms” by Sir Ken Robinson (highly recommended), from which I am taking two important topics to talk about in this post:

1. Diverting Thinking

2. ADHD

Diverting thinking is defined as the process of having original ideas that have value, or the ability of thinking different possible answers or solutions to a given problem. It is an essential capacity for creativity.

An interesting experiment was performed on 1500 children, simple question such as “How many uses you can think of to a paper clip?” were done. At Kinder garden, the tested children obtained a genius level in diverting thinking (98%), 5 and 10 years later the same children were tested and their results were not as good as before, which made researchers conclude that:


“We all have this capacity, but as we grow old it deteriorates”

The second topic is about ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children, which has been increasingly diagnosed in the last years. According to Sir Ken Robinson, parents in order to control their children have chosen the easiest solution, using drugs on them. Is not this sad?


Image Taken From [video]

I do not have children of my own, but I know that many of them have lots of battery difficult to exhaust :). Yet, I have to agree with Sir Ken Robinson, using drugs on children simply does not sound right. Other solutions must exist, perhaps less sugar (carbohydrates included) or more exercise … or both [diet, sports]. I do not think these children are creating energy out of simply breathing air.

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So, if we all are born with the capacity of diverting thinking, with the possibility of being creative, and if this deteriorates as we grow old, would not be this caused by our environment? If we observe the graph of big inventions for century, what in our environment from, let us say 1975, could contribute to such a decline?

Is not it that some children are being labeled as sick and subjected to drugs wrongly simply because they are being trapped in our modern life style, having scarce ways to free their energy and boost their creativity?

Everything points out to one direction, apparently the rush of our lives, the technology in which we are immersed and in general our today's environment is blinding us and making us to evolute in ... less creative persons.

Let alone creativeness, that we have to reach a point of using drugs on children is not right. Yet, it is worst that we are incapable to recognize it. The internet, TV, video games, etc. might no be the direct causes of ADHD cases, but what I am sure of is that they are not helping either.

I am not against technology or evolution. I am against of overuse and excess in general. When was the last time you overworked, overslept, overate or got wasted? … Which were the effects? More likely it was not a very good time. Even too much sleep causes headaches, at least to me it does. As an old friend used to tell me: “Everything in excess is bad”, even the good things. Moderation is the key, isn't it?