Do you have Ping Ponged attention?

A pendulous streak of white mesmerizes those watching. Your head is in a constant left-to-right, up-and-down motion as you follow the action. The excitement is heightened by otherworldly, yet fluid, body movements that would make a contortionist cringe. No, you are not watching a Hollywood blockbuster or the latest action packed game. You are watching table tennis, also known by the more cutesy ring of ping pong.

While ping pong players and the game played are highly entertaining to watch, a far more popular sport is giving us the same whiplashed excitement — the sport of information surfing on the Internet. Our distracted behavior plays out in two significant ways.

First, the constant pings from e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and the like, put us into a heightened awareness that prohibits “deep thought.” You have probably noticed this in your day-to-day activities. After the chime of an arriving e-mail or a flashy pop-up announcing a Tweet, your attention is temporarily interrupted and requires far more time to refocus than the initial interruption stole.

Second, we are skimming electronic information at a frenetic pace. Unlike a printed page which is read in sequential left-to-right (for most) pattern, we tend to quickly scan on-screen content in an effort to quickly get the highlights. At this fast pace, our minds struggle to commit the information from “working memory” into a lasting thought.

If we’re unable to attend to the information in our working memory, the information lasts only as long as the neurons that hold it maintain their electric charge-a few seconds at best. Then it’s gone, leaving little or no trace in the mind. – Nicholas Carr, The Shallows

In our quest to gather more information, is the Internet making us dumber? In what cases could you offer print as a curator and filter, for deeper thought?

photo credit: Paleontour