Minds in a FLUX

THE INTERNET IS RESHAPING YOUNG BRAINS IN AN OMINOUS DEVELOPMENT FOR THE FUTURE OF ATTENTION SPANS AND IN-DEPTH THINKING. THE TREND SEEMS IRREVERSIBLE, BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO FIGHT IT BY ENCOURAGING 'DEEP READING'.

Once upon a time, life used to be a whole lot simpler. The lnternet as an ever-burgeoning global network of entertainment and information exchange was but a glint in the eye of a few scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, and video games were we yet fairly primitive and far less addictive, As for smartphones, they still resided in the realm of futurism and remained locked up as merely a promising thought at the Deck of Steve Jobs' mind.

True, there were numerous television channels - in the West, at any rate - that offered up long hours of mindless entenainment dairy. Yet by and large young people still had to cope with few digitalized toms of diversion to distract them. Many of them enjoyed burying themselves in novels and pursued a variety of good old-fashioned hobbies like Collecting stamps and building models. Those halcyon days, such as they Were, were a mere generation ago, in terms of personal habits, however, they might as well have been a century ago. These days, from the very Wrst few years of their lives, children are exposed to myriad gadgets - smartphones, tablets, laptops - that demand their undivided attention relentlessly with their endless offerings.

Popular games like Angry Birds, a constant stream of cute and funny YouTube videos, intrusive social media platforms like LINE and WhatsApp - they are all \/ying for youngsters attention seemingly every minute of every day. This electronic glut has some benefits, yes For instance, parents can stay in touch with their children and monitor their activities with ease through smartphone apps and instant phone calls alike.

With increased digltisation, however, has come something rather less beneficial: ever-shrinking attention spans. These days most of us seem to suffer from the kind of fleeting cognitive focus that one might tend to associate with fruit flies. Many of us, youngsters especially, barely seem to have enough time in a day for checking out all those YouTube videos and for uploading a few more dozen selfies to Facebook or LINE. Sc inevitably, old habits like staying focused on tasks and paying attention to details must give. As for books, reading is, you know, so yesterday.

Sound gloomy? It should. It not just that our habits are changing, rather, the very neural oirouitries of cur brains - especially those of younger children - may be getting rewired and reprogrammed. Brains are malleable things. Even older people who once grew up reading books may find that, thanks to the instant allure of all those distractions literally at their Hngertips, they can no longer immerse themselves in lengthier texts for sustained periods of time. Their minds may start to wander and they may begin to turn fidgety within minutes. They may then find themselves checking their Facebook page just one more time or playing a few more rounds of Angry Birds or Plants vs Zombies 2 That book can wait . And wait.. And wait...