首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Does the Internet Make You Dumber? [A]The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to
Does the Internet Make You Dumber? [A]The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to
admin
2014-06-30
31
问题
Does the Internet Make You Dumber?
[A]The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: "To be everywhere is to be nowhere. " Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into disrupted and superficial thinkers.
[B]The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity(速度), of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate(镇定的)and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by e-mails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle(尽力同时应付)many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.
[C]The common thread in these disabilities is dispersing our attention. The richness of our thoughts, our memories and even our personalities hinges on our ability to focus the mind and sustain concentration. Only when we pay deep attention to a new piece of information are we able to associate it "meaningfully and systematically with knowledge already well established in memory," writes the Nobel Prize winning neuroscientist(神经科学家)Eric Kandel. Such associations are essential to mastering complex concepts.
[D]When we’re constantly distracted and interrupted, as we tend to be online, our brains are unable to generalize the strong and expansive neural connections that give depth and distinctiveness to our contemplating. We become mere signal-processing units, quickly shepherding disjointed bits of information into and then out of short-term memory.
[E]In an article published in Science last year, Patricia Greenfield, a leading developmental psychologist, reviewed dozens of studies on how different media technologies influence our cognitive abilities. Some of the studies indicated that certain computer tasks, like playing video games, can enhance "visual literacy skills" , increasing the speed at which people can shift their focus among icons and other images on screens. Other studies, however, found that such rapid shifts in focus, even if performed adeptly, result in less rigorous and "more automatic" thinking.
[F]In one experiment conducted at Cornell University, for example, half a class of students was allowed to use Internet-connected laptops during a lecture, while the other had to keep their computers shut. Those who browsed the Web performed much worse on a subsequent test of how well they retained the lecture’s content. While it’s hardly surprising that Web surfing would distract students, it should be a note of caution to schools that are wiring their classrooms in hopes of improving learning.
[G]Ms. Greenfield concluded that " every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others. " Our growing use of screen-based media, she said, has strengthened visual-spatial intelligence, which can improve the ability to do jobs that involve keeping track of lots of simultaneous signals, like air traffic control. But that has been accompanied by " new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes," including " abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination. " We’re becoming, in a word, shallower.
[H]In another experiment, recently conducted at Stanford University’s Communication between Humans and Interactive Media Lab, a team of researchers gave various cognitive tests to 49 people who do a lot of media multitasking and 52 people who multitask much less frequently. The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention, and were much less able to distinguish important information from trivial.
[I]The researchers were surprised by the results. They had expected that the intensive multitaskers would have gained some unique mental advantages from all their on-screen juggling. But that wasn’t the case. In fact, the heavy multitaskers weren’t even good at multitasking. They were considerably less adept at switching between tasks than the more infrequent multitaskers. " Everything distracts them," observed Clifford Nass, the professor who heads the Stanford lab.
[J]It would be one thing if the ill effects went away as soon as we turned off our computers and cellphones. But they don’t. The cellular structure of the human brain, scientists have discovered, adapts readily to the tools we use, including those for finding, storing and sharing information. By changing our habits of mind, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. The cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we’re not using the technology.
[K]The pioneering neuroscientist Michael Merzenich believes our brains are being "massively remodeled" by our ever-intensifying use of the Web and related media. In the 1970s and 1980s, Mr. Merzenich, now a professor emeritus at the University of California in San Francisco, conducted a famous series of experiments on primate brains that revealed how extensively and quickly neural circuits change in response to experience. When, for example, Mr. Merzenich rearranged the nerves in a monkey’s hand, the nerve cells in the animal’s sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new "mental map" of the hand. In a conversation late last year, he said that he was profoundly worried about the cognitive consequences of the constant distractions and interruptions the Internet bombards us with. The long-term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives, he said, could be " deadly".
[L]What we seem to be sacrificing in all our surfing and searching is our capacity to engage in the quieter, attentive modes of thought that underpin contemplation, reflection and introspection. The Web never encourages us to slow down. It keeps us in a state of perpetual mental locomotion. It is revealing, and distressing, to compare the cognitive effects of the Internet with those of an earlier information technology, the printed book. Whereas the Internet scatters our attention, the book focuses it. Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness.
[M]Reading a long sequence of pages helps us develop a rare kind of mental discipline. The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted. Our predisposition is to be aware of as much of what’s going on around us as possible. Our fast-paced, reflexive shifts in focus were once crucial to our survival. They reduced the odds that a predator would take us by surprise or that we’d overlook a nearby source of food.
[N]To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought. It requires us to place ourselves at what T. S. Eliot, in his poem "Four Quartets" , called "the still point of the turning world". We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind.
[O]It is this control, this mental discipline, which we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with. —Nicholas Carr is the author, most recently, of "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains".
Whereas the Internet distracts our attention, the book concentrates on it.
选项
答案
L
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/v7qFFFFM
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Therearemanyunitsbywhichtomeasuretheimpactofclimatechange:degreesofincreasingtemperature,feetofrisingsealev
A、Hisvisionandhistravelallovertheworld.B、Hisexpertiseandbusinessmarketingskills.C、Themoneywepayforthe"infor
Somepeople’searsproducewaxlikebusylittlebees.Thiscanbeaproblemeventhoughearwax(耳垢)appearstoserveanimportant
Somepeople’searsproducewaxlikebusylittlebees.Thiscanbeaproblemeventhoughearwax(耳垢)appearstoserveanimportant
Alcoholhasapeculiarrelationshiptohappiness.Wedrinktocelebrate,butbecausealcoholworksasadepressant,itendsupd
中国新年是中国最重要的传统节日,在中国也被称为春节。新年的庆祝活动从除夕开始一直延续到元宵节(theLanternFestival),即从农历(lunarcalendar)最后一个月的最后一天至新年第一个月的第十五天。各地欢度春节的习俗和传统有很大差
Cryingishardlyanactivityencouragedbysociety.Tears,betheyofsorrow,anger,orjoy,typicallymakeAmericansfeeluncom
A、Wheredryandhumidairmassesmeet.B、Wheretheairbecomeswarmandhumid.C、Whenthunderstormsortornadoesoccur.D、Whent
A、Thebeautifulsceneryinhighplace.B、Thedangerofclimbingskyscraper.C、Thedecentincomebyclimbing.D、Theentertainment
Go(围棋)isanancientAsiangame.Inrecentyears,computerexperts,particularlythose【C1】______inartificialintelligence,have
随机试题
“汉赋四大家”是谁?他们作品的思想内容与艺术特色如何?
女性,37岁,左前胸锁骨中线第4肋间处被刺伤,局部伤口有溢血。血压降至10.5/8.5kPa,脉搏快,气促,心前区搏动减弱,颈静脉怒张。此时,首要的诊断是
工地会议的形式主要有()。
对二级评价项目的环境要素进行分析评价时,通常应当采用( )来描述完成。
资产组合M的期望收益率为18%,标准离差为27.9%,资产组合N的期望收益率为13%,标准离差率为1.2,投资者张某和赵某决定将其个人资产投资于资产组合M和N中,张某期望的最低收益率为16%,赵某投资于资产组合M和N的资金比例分别为30%和70%。要
甲为乙普通合伙企业的合伙人。甲欠丙20万元,丙欠乙30万元。丙提出:将甲欠丙的20万元抵销丙欠乙的20万元,丙再偿还乙10万元。丙的主张符合伙企业法的规定。()
下列对名著的描述错误的一项是()。
1.2017年全国两会上,有关“提振文化自信”“传统文化复兴”的话题,引起了代表委员们的热议。他们纷纷表示,中华优秀传统文化涵养着深厚的文化自信,不忘本来才能开辟未来,善于继承才能更好创新。“中华文化源远流长,文化自信有着深厚底蕴。”在全国政协十二
商业机构、设计师、消费者,常规意义上由上至下的产品链条正在发生某种变化,追本溯源,最终消费者在经济衰退期拥有的选择权利被无比放大了,以最终使用者行为来把握设计细节的趋势,正在悄悄压倒昔日流水线文明下的设计语言,同时消费者自身也在悄悄成为设计者的一部分,他们
Whichofthefollowingproducthasastandardizedcontract?______.
最新回复
(
0
)