Sunday, September 5, 2010

How do digital devices affect the way we process information?

An interesting article from NPR discusses several research projects that are studying the way that digital technologies affect our brains. Some research shows that heavy multimedia users have trouble focusing on tasks and filtering out irrelevant information. While other research shows that digital technologies have many positive benefits because information can be organized so that we do not have to keep track of it all.

The article also includes some interesting stats. It says that the average person today consumes about three times as much information as a person consumed in 1960. In addition, an average computer user can switch programs 36 times an hour.