AHAHAHA apparently the internet will make us uncreative

[ineptshieldmaid]

Internet: makes you less creativeApparently people who "optimise their ability to multi-task online" are going to be unable to concentrate on anything, ever! People who spend lots of time online lose their ability for introspection! Being online discourages you to think deeply. People who spend lots of time online will lose their creativity and

Comments

[ineptshieldmaid]

Yeah, it's not that I think being offline is *bad*. It's that I don't think being ONLINE is bad!

[ineptshieldmaid]

HEARTS TO YOU TOO.

Having a life is dull. Very overrated!

Writing my thesis might be kind of important though... *wanders off to do that*

[tarimanveri]

I know! It's so ridiculous, and generally also with a side of being so very, very wrong about how people in the past learned and processed information. I suggest this (although fyi it's on a site that seems to talk mostly about religion): http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/culture/2942/medieval_multitasking:_did_we_ever_focus/.
It mostly captures my response to these things, which is generally along the lines of "but what about the inter- and hyper-textuality of medieval manuscripts and manuscript culture, and the disputatious twelfth century?"

[ineptshieldmaid]

Ugh, I know! It's true that I have trouble, say, reading a novel straight through now. I keep wanting to leave comments every chapter or so!

That's as much the fault of academia as the internet, though. I get a couple of chapters in and I start twitching because I don't have any secondary sources, I don't get all the author's references, I don't know enough about the author's life, I don't know what people think about this book!

[tarimanveri]

Yes, that's a good point. What we're trained to do as academics is very intertextual, and would be whether the internet were there or not. I don't think the fact that I pause frequently in my reading to mentally argue with it, or to fit it into my own understanding of the topic, or to look up book reviews to see if anyone else hates it as much as me, has anything to do with the fact that I also use the internet and check my email a lot.

I don't see why wanting that deeply-enriching interaction is wrong, though. And seriously, if we're talking authors not academic writers, think about Dickens or anyone in the nineteenth century writing their novels as weekly serials. That is basically fanfiction right there, and there's no way it didn't involve a lot of fangirly mail being like OMG OLIVER/DODGER OTP!!!! and stuff, that Dickens probably stopped to read several times a day when the mail arrived.

[tarimanveri]

Not to mention that all this "wasting time" and "avoiding real life" and "multi-tasking" means that I get a lot more practice at, oh wait, what's that? Oh wait, writing! Which I'd do a lot less without the internet! Because spending more time articulating my thoughts in writing is OBVIOUSLY making my brain melt. Also, LEARNING SHIT. Where do these people think we are getting our critical vocabularies?

[be_themoon]

that's... uh, fascinating.

I'm just gonna keep writing my original fic. The one where I got over my writer's block through online help and chatter and bouncing ideas.

[ineptshieldmaid]

*waves pompoms*

[peroxidepirate]

As someone who has big issues with any kind of monofocus, I love you for pointing to neurotypical privilege as a problem.

I would guess there's some reverse-causality going on in that blogger's head, too, as I'd think those of us who multitask well don't have an easy time concentrating in the first place. This isn't a problem, necessarily; it just is. The problem is the belief that only one form of creativity is valuable or important.

Also, I'm watching Doctor Who via Netflix while commenting here. Multitasking. :D

[ineptshieldmaid]

Multitasking is awesome! There's quite a lot of things which I wouldn't be able to do if I *had* to monofocus on it. Watch Buffy, for example. I don't do so well with over-stimulation, so monofocus on anything audiovisual which is more suspenseful than Dr Who is not the best of ideas for me!

Granted, right now I could really do with some thesis-related monofocus. For me, lack of focus seems to be an age thing - and co-incidentally goes hand in hand with becoming a generally more balanced and healthy person. I used to be really good at tunnel vision, because I wanted to shut out my entire life.

I love you for pointing to neurotypical privilege as a problem.
:) <3s to you too!

[ashen_key]

Also, monofocus is the key to productivity, creativity and Deep Thoughts. Neurotypical privilege much?

I bet she thinks that all you need to do to have one thing in your head at once is TRY AND CONCENTRATE, too. *scowls*

[ineptshieldmaid]

Apparently all you have to do is sit in a room with no internet and concentration magically happens!

[ashen_key]

Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah.