Freedom is a Choice

Bree Nordenson makes a good assumption when she uses her knowledge from cognitive psychology to interpret the different effects of multitasking, attention economy, and learned helplessness on news consumers. The Internet has been used by people since the late 1960’s. It offers several different free news sources. Although a lot of its material is unfiltered and unpackaged, studies have shown that the American public is no better informed than in less information-rich times. Humans have been blessed with the culture of multitasking such as driving and talking on the phone although some people have recently been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Trait which is a trait that is a culturally induced form of attention-deficit disorder. In my opinion, it’s a condition induced by modern life, in which you’ve become so busy attending to so many inputs and outputs that you’ve become increasingly distracted, irritable, impulsive, restless and, over the long term, underachieving. In other words, it costs you efficiency because you’re doing so much or trying to do so much, it’s as if you’re juggling one more ball than you possibly can. I find myself doing this when I have so many things to do such as do the laundry, go to class, go to publix, go to work, clean my room, do my homework. Although instead of making a list or starting off with one thing and accomplishing everything I will just sit on facebook all day instead and get nothing done. It’s become a problem of mine that I am trying to fix day by day. I have been told by some people that I may have learned helplessness which is the passivity that arises in individuals due to a lack of control over their circumstances. The internet has several distractions, but its up to you to choose if you want to let it help you or harm you.