Education: Attentional Disarray

Summary of Writer’s Position

Turkle reveals that people easily zone off into the world of social media with their cell phones, tablets, iPads, or laptops to the point they hardly have time to interact physically with others. People today prefer virtual interactions over meeting physically and developing a human connection. Studies conducted in different institutions show that students face challenges concentrating whenever they have their devices with them, which affects their ability to stay focused (Colombo et al., 2019). There is a familiar concept known as multitasking. Although many people think this is only a fallacy, multitasking is a serious problem. The truth is that people are forcing their brains to juggle between activities, which might be causing damage to the brain. People need to develop the ability to focus on one thing at a time rather than multiple because, as the proverb goes, “one cannot serve two masters at a go.”

The Fallacies

Turkle’s first fallacy is that any time people use their gadgets in class, they are probably texting or roaming the web unnecessarily. However, this might not always be true since some people might be doing constructive things on their gadgets. There is also a claim that using gadgets in class causes widespread distraction. True as this might sound, this is not always the case because only a few might get distracted by other people’s acts of distraction. The third fallacy can be found in the example given about Steiker, a law lecturer at Harvard. She took the initiative to prohibit the use of gadgets in her classes by banning phones and laptops in a bid to increase student attention. Although this might help, it does not necessarily ensure that students will be attentive, as no one can have total control over people’s thoughts (Colombo et al., 2019). As Turkle has argued, people will always wander off in their thoughts, even if they do not have gadgets to take away their attention.

My Position

I agree with Turkle’s perspective, as the arguments are evident today. These days, people use their gadgets lengthily, following up on something or conversing with others. It is the idea of being together physically yet distanced. However, failing to concentrate on one thing at a time or lengthy engagements with gadgets might be damaging in the long run. Eventually, people will be very efficient in performing their work and achieving results, yet extremely poor at physical interactions. Furthermore, poor attentional spans might affect how people address different issues in their lives since they cannot stabilize and focus.

Reference

Colombo, G., Cullen, R., & Lisle, B. (2019). Rereading America Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and writing. Bedford/St. Martins.