Digital Distractions Cost Vigilance

Do virtual worlds bring us together with others, or do they just make being utterly alone a little more bearable? There is a very thin line between us managing interface and interface managing us. It is when we start using virtual world to substitute our loneliness and use it as a source to meet our emotional and psychological needs that our interface starts interfering with our task managing abilities and further takes control of it. The fact is that the distraction by an interface and virtual worlds is actually making the generation of ‘digital natives’ less vigilant in their general dealings. Blabbering on social networks such as facebook and twitter gives its users an urge and direction for knowing minor details about other people every second of the day. Marshall McLuhan also rolled the concept that the price of eternal vigilance is indifference. When applied to the technological generation, the essence of the quote is that vigilance is not attained by multitasking practiced by most of the ‘digital generation’. Spending more time online and less time with real people is not making people indifferent; rather they get insignificant bits of information about others’ personal life. Being constantly hooked with the social network is making people lose their ability to concentrate. Slackness is the consequence of using social networks and distracting oneself with online games and videos.

An article called, 'Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction' in New York Times on November 21, 2010, discusses the digital native generation being caught between two worlds, a virtual one and one with real-life demands. David Reilly, the principal of Woodside High School in Silicon Valley, California, says that the unchecked use of digital devices can create a culture in which students are addicted to the virtual world and further lost in it. Mr. Reilly also adds that social butterflies tend to be heavy texters and Facebook users while students who are less social might escape into games. Those who are drifters or prone to procrastination might surf the Web or watch videos. Mr. Reilly furthers that technology amplifies who you are. (Growing up digital, wired for distraction, November 21, 2010, New York Times). No matter what level of social involvement a person has, he or she ends up finding the kind of virtual involvement that suits his or her personality.

Marshall McLuhan coined the idea that media and technology are extensions of the human body’s limbs and senses. It was R.W. Emersion who originally wrote in 1870 that all the tools and engines on the earth are only extensions of human being’s limbs and senses. For some people, entering into the virtual world is a way of escaping from the real world and its problems. A lot of people in digital era use Interface to distract themselves, but the fact lies in another era: they could have been distracted by the TV or the radio. Interface and the Internet are just another way of escapism. Distraction, from either the Internet or TV, devoid a person from his or her ability to focus on a certain thing for longer periods of time, and consequently, affects the quality of the work. The constant use of an interface is causing the digital generation to become adroit at multitasking, which leads to less focus on certain work rather than consistency. The virtual world has made immediate gratification a need for its users which ultimately causes the interface to control us.

References:
Marshall McLuhan, February 24, 2011, http://marshallmcluhan.com/mcluhanisms/
Marshall McLuhan, February 24, 2011, http://marshallmcluhan.com/common-questions/