Here is my tweaked presentation about Digital Distraction and Overload for the Cedar Falls Supper Club.

1. Digital Distractions & Digital
Overload: Maybe Nicholas Carr (The
Shallows) was right!
Supper Club Speech--Jan. 19th 2016
Cherie Dargan

2. Overview
• Watch a brief interview with Nicholas Carr, author of the best seller,
The Shallows
• Consider evidence of digital distractions and digital overload --
infographics
• Discuss several compelling quotes from the book The Shallows
• Share experiences working with students in face to face and online
classes struggling to focus
• Suggest a prescription for all of us wanting to learn how to focus in the
midst of distraction

3. The Problem: I want MORE
I’m writing a weekly blog and really enjoying it. ….I love doing
research online with my PC, iPad, or iPhone, but find myself
searching for more information even when I think I have enough.
There is a hunger, a desire, even a lust for MORE information, and
more visually based information—photos, videos, and infographics.
Turns out, I’m not alone.

4. We’re spending 11 hours a day on media,
including our various devices with screens!
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/nielsen-
reports-that-the-average-american-adult-
spends-11-hours-per-day-on-gadgets/
Nielsen reports on media usage: chart by
Statista

5. Mobile Devices give us Access to the Web, 24/7

6. Look at how much more we can do online!
HCC, Spring 2012 -- iPad pilot. Apps, Social
Media, Games, HCC websites.
London Internet Cafe, March 1999—Mike
checks his email.

7. We have too much to do! (email, files, pics, posts, texts)
We are living in the age of digital
overload—we get too many texts,
email messages, social media
posts, tweets, pins, & alerts to read
and respond to in any given day.
We are filling up our hard drives.
We can't keep up with the flow of
information, entertainment, news,
and cat videos.
We don’t want to miss
out on anything!

8. The Data Explosion (2014) (Infographic)
http://aci.info/2014/07/12/the-data-explosion-in-2014-minute-by-minute-infographic/
Susan Gunelius. “Data Never Sleeps. The Data Explosion in 2014, Minute by Minute –
Infographic.” JULY 12, 2014
According to this article, every minute:
· Facebook users share nearly 2.5 million pieces of content.
· Twitter users tweet nearly 300,000 times.
· Instagram users post nearly 220,000 new photos.
· YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video content.
· Apple users download nearly 50,000 apps.
· Email users send over 200 million messages.
· Amazon generates over $80,000 in online sales.

9. Infographic on the Brain & What it Wants!
http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/
“13 Reasons The Brain Craves Infographics”
(The animated version: a timer at the bottom tells
you how long you have been reading the
infographic).
What is an Infographic? A visual packed with
facts.

10. A few facts from “13 Reasons”
1) The use of visualized information has increased
· 400% in literature since 1990 and 9900% on the internet since
2007. 142% in newspapers between 1985 and 1994
2) We are visually wired: Almost 50% of your brain is involved in
visual processing and 70% of your sensory receptors are in your
eyes
3) Infographics help because we suffer from information
overload
We get 5 times the information as we did in 1986
We get 34 gigabytes of information (or 100,500 words) on an average
day. On average, we only read 28% of words per visit

11. “13 Reasons Your Brain Craves Infographics”

12. The Interview with Nicholas Carr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI
“What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” Published
on May 6, 2013.
Interview with Nicholas Carr, the author of The
Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

13. Follow up to the video
I use this video with my Composition students and it helps
them to understand what is happening in their brains when
they go online.
If you are interested, you can check out the companion video
that explains some of the “hidden gems” in the video. I’ll send
out the link to the presentation on Google Docs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf_-5VHiR0 --
Hidden Gems in, "What the Internet is Doing to our
Brains"

14. Nicholas Carr’s website http://www.nicholascarr.com/

15. True Confessions: Not a Fan at first!
When the book The Shallows first came out, I gave it a quick look and
thought it was rather pessimistic, and put it aside.
I was looking for a highly readable text for my students, and didn’t think
this was it! As one of my favorite professors, Dr. Bob from Buena Vista
would say, there aren’t many pictures and lots of big words.
Lately, I’ve been taking another look…..

16. Why is this digital distraction happening?
The net is changing how we respond to information as well
as how people are formatting information online (little
chunks of info, lots of visuals)
We aren’t reading as much and the way we read is changing
(scanning and skimming)
Carr argues that our brains are being rewired and that we
are constantly seeing new information.
We are also being OVERLOADED with information!

17. Carr: Switch from Reading to Power Browsing
Most Web pages are viewed for less than 20 seconds.
The switch from reading to power-browsing is happening very
quickly and it represents a deeper change in our thinking.
The digital environment encourages people to explore broadly but at
a superficial level. Patience with reading long documents is
decreasing. There is a compelling urge to skip ahead. Skimming is
becoming the dominant mode of reading. Of course there are
compensations, positive aspects of this. Every medium develops some
cognitive skills at the expense of others. (pages 135-139)

18. Carr: The Net is an interruption system
"The Net is, by design, an interruption system, a machine
geared for dividing attention." (131)
"Frequent interruptions scatter our thoughts, weaken our
memory, and make us tense and anxious." (132)
"The near-continuous stream of new information pumped
out by the Web also plays to our natural tendency to
'vastly overvalue what happens to us right now….'" (134)

19. The map, the clock and the book
Without going into too many details, Carr argues that humans have been
changed by these three inventions--or tools of the mind, as he calls them.
Maps gave us a sense of where we are and where we want to go: they helped us
to make sense of the world
Clocks gave us a way to measure time but also changed the way we saw things,
as people began to divide time up into chunks, with certain times reserved for
certain activities (Chapter 3)
The Clock and map also gave us new metaphors and expanded language and
thought. Books came along later and brought more changes (chapter 4).

20. Books, Gutenberg & literacy
Carr discusses the development of writing, and its significance, as well as the
role of Gutenberg’s printing press in chapter 4. He describes it as one of the
most important inventions in history (69). Francis Bacon wrote that only the
inventions of gunpowder and the compass had impacted human affairs as
much.
•The number of books produced in the 50 years after Gutenberg’s invention
equaled the number produced by scribes during the previous 1000 years (69)
•It became possible to buy books, to have libraries, and literacy was
encouraged.
•By the end of the 15th century, more than 250 towns had a printing press and
produced over 12 million books.

21. Carr: the screen VS. the book
"After 550 years, the printing press and its products are being
pushed from the center of our intellectual life to its edges."
"The world of the screen…is a very different place from the
world of the page. A new intellectual ethic is taking hold.
The pathways in our brains are once again being rerouted."
(77)

22. Distracted & Overloaded!

23. Signs of Digital Overload *
· My drop box alerts me that it is full and will not sync until I remove some
files.
· My sister calls because she can no longer upload new pictures to her
computer: I talk her through the steps and we rediscover she has filled
up her hard drive with pictures and videos.
· Apple offers to switch my iCloud account to double the storage for
about the same amount of money. I did it on the spot and watched my
storage space DOUBLE instantly. (Who says you can’t buy
happiness?)
· My students tease me whenever I bring up my Hawkeye Email-- you
have a thousand unread messages??!! Yes, I subscribe to a lot of
email newsletters! (from my Blog Post for Nov. 20 -- Digital Overload)

24. The Net is subsuming our other technologies
It is "becoming our typewriter and our printing press, our map and
our clock, our calculator and our telephone, our post office and our
library, our radio and our TV." (83) We never really have to
disconnect. TV watching has not declined but we are devoting much
less time to reading words printed on paper. The old technologies
become a cultural dead end. The new technologies govern
production and consumption, guide people's behavior and shape
their perceptions. (89) Changes in the form change how we use,
experience and understand the content. (from The Shallows)

25. The Book VS. The Web
"Research continues to show that people who read linear
text comprehend more, remember more, and learn
more than those who read text peppered with links."
(127)
Ironically, Geeky Grandma loves her Kindle and ebooks,
while the majority of my students say they prefer print
books but do not seem to “read” them very carefully.

26. An Aha moment!
My students stare down at their smartphones--to check the
time, to check for a new text, to check their scores on the
Canvas app (our online CMS), or to check for an email that I
just mentioned sending to their class. Some read an ebook
and many have used the navigation on their phone to get to a
new destination. They don’t tote around big laptops for the
most part: the smartphone is their clock, map, and book.

27. Technology’s impact on Higher Ed (Go Web)
What have we seen in the past 20 years?
From chalk boards to smart boards, and internet access in classroom
From Books to eBooks, plus YouTube Videos, and online course management
systems for all classes, whether online or F2F
Consolidation of book publishers who are investing heavily in online tools
Teachers report attendance and final grades online
Email and other communication tools encourage communication with
students, who would rather text, call or email than show up at the office
Most teachers give some or all of their tests online, and create drop boxes for
assignments which are graded online, so tie into an online gradebook

28. Technology and Workload
I found a wonderful quote by Richard Beasley on
a blog post about Digital Overload: “If you are
not careful, technology can actually increase
your workload rather than increase your
productivity.”
This was my experience this past fall, when we switched to a new Course
Management system. I had no idea how much time it would take to recreate five
websites & then grade almost all online.

29. Do the math...1100 hours on Canvas, Fall 15
I spend many hours online during my workday, using Canvas, our new
Course management System to teach both Face to face and online
classes. I use Canvas for tests and worksheets, collect work with drop
boxes, post announcements, and have all of my handouts organized in
five separate webspaces, one for each class.
By Finals in December, I had spent approximately 1100 hours on
Canvas. That works out to 61 hours a week for 18 weeks (from the
first week of August, rebuilding those websites through Finals,
grading final essays and exams, and recording final scores).
That is 8.7 hours a day, 7 days a week. I also spent time IN class!

30. Reward? Tendonitis in my Shoulder
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000438.htm

31. Other Effects: Stress, Exhaustion
The effects of digital overload leave us exhausted and overwhelmed. They
distract us, delay us, and take our time and energy.
Like the ancient Greek God who pushed a rock up the mountain only to
have it roll back down, we end the day sometimes feeling triumph that
we’ve checked certain tasks off the list, answered email, graded,
responded to students, recorded points, tweeted, texted, posted
responses to a status update done early in the day—and just as we go
to turn away from our PC or laptop or iPad or Smartphone, we realize
there are new messages, new tweets, new texts, and all of our progress
seems undone.
And, we are the grown-ups! What is it doing to our young people?

32. Social Media: an “ugly, evil distraction”
Last semester I had several startling conversations with a handful of
students who confessed they are struggling with college, having a
hard time paying attention in class, and not able to focus on their
homework for long due to digital distraction.
A number of my Composition students wrote about it in their
essays. One girl called her addiction to social media an “ugly, evil
distraction” that led to her flunking a class in high school—and not
being able to participate in a sport she loved. That was her wakeup
call.

33. Digital distractions in teens given laptops 1:1
The first girl confessed to me that her High School had been early
adopters of the One to One program in 2010—giving every student
and teacher a shiny new laptop.
She had been thrilled and quickly found herself on Twitter, Facebook
and Pinterest, where she had organized ideas for decorating rooms;
unfortunately, her homework was always last on the list.
Her school rushed into the project without a lot of planning, and
teachers were not prepared or trained. Classes were chaotic in the
early days, with too much time for students to spend on social media,
ignoring assignments. She told me, “my brain was
elsewhere...taking pictures, posting stupid tweets, and
reblogging pictures.”

34. Not just an isolated case….
I heard variations of this story half a dozen times more
and my concerns grew.
Several students used almost the same words to
describe the battle in their minds for getting
organized, getting homework done, and staying
off social media and/or their phones in class and
later at home, while they were supposedly
studying.
Then, I read a report on CNN that freaked me out!

35. Being 13 -- Special CNN Report (Oct. 2015)
CNN’s Anderson Cooper did a special report on “Being 13: Inside the
world of Teens” (Hadad), and found that many of these kids check
social media 100 and even 200 times a day.
Teens don’t post that often; instead, they lurk to see if others liked their
postings, or to see if anyone is saying mean things about them. Likes are a
way to measure popularity.
They also take LOTS of selfies--100 or more, to get that perfect picture.
The study looked at 200 teens and included an analysis of 150,000 posts and
messages by two trained psychologists. According to CNN’s Hadad, “The level of
profanity, explicit sexual language and references to drug use surprised the experts,
considering the study's subjects were only in eighth grade.”

36. Competing for attention

37. What can you teach in 15 minutes?
If teens are checking their social media and texts 100 times a day,
let’s narrow that down into 15 hours, from 7 am to 10 pm, and that
means that every 15 minutes, teens are on their phones checking
for updates or uploading selfies.
If they are checking 200 times a day, that goes down to every 7
minutes. What can you accomplish in 7 minutes between checking for
updates on social media? How about in 15 minutes? How do we teach
children to problem solve, think critically, or reflect in 7 minutes? How
do they learn complex Math and Science concepts and master
formulas in 7 minutes?

38. What’s going on? Being 13 Then & Now
Think about what it was like when you were 13, sitting in an 8th grade class: maybe
you were lucky and had at least one friend in there. You might write and pass a note,
but you were expected to have the book open, be taking notes or working on math
problems or completing a worksheet over something you read for class. If caught, your
note might be read by the teacher—or you might be asked to read it out loud.
NOW, think about a classroom FULL of 13 year olds all with smartphones: for one
thing, it would be noisy with lots of little alerts that new tweets, posts, and text messages
were waiting for attention. How does the teacher compete for their attention? Or should
she just sit back and check her own smartphone?
According to the National Education Association, many schools are lifting bans on
the use of cellphones in the classroom (Kinjo) and the Pew Reports did not seem to
indicate that phones were staying in backpacks, purses and pockets during class.

39. What is ahead for these 13 year olds?
My student wrote, “ I hope that students, teachers, parents, and members of
communities can see the problem that is becoming an epidemic, and they will
do something to fix it for themselves, their children, and their future.”
She hopes to become a teacher herself and worries that her students will be
giving their attention to their devices instead of her.
How are we going to deal with these students and their mobile devices?
How successful are they going to be in their educations and careers, much less
their relationships?
I’m retiring so I don’t have to look forward to teaching these students: but I
already see digital distraction and digital overload in my college students.

40. My college students: Hypervigilant & Impatient
Attending to every audible alert or vibration of their
smartphones is destroying their focus, and eroding their ability
to go more than a few minutes without checking their phones
for a new text, tweet, photo, or status update.
As noted earlier, the mere mention of grading an assignment
sends them to their phones to check grades; furthermore,
there is an impatience on the part of students to have work
graded, and I sometimes have to say, “Look—this isn’t the
drive through window at McDonalds! It takes time.”

41. Is a lack of focus the new normal?
As I near the end of my teaching career, I wonder what is down the
road for Education at all levels.
Students need the ability to focus on a piece of text in order to read,
analyze and write about it; they need to concentrate in order to
solve mathematical problems, do their science labs and write up the
results, and listen to short lectures and then engage in discussion.
Digital distraction and digital overload make those things
difficult, if not impossible.

42. What needs to happen? Some Proposals….
• Read Carr’s books. (The Shallows, 2010 and The Glass Cage,
2014)
• Make the Jitterbug the phone for ten year olds! (Why do ten
year olds need phones? Some phones are now marketed to SIX
year olds!)
• Educate parents, teachers, school boards, and administrators:
BAN STUDENTS from having phones in the classroom, since it
leads to continual use of them to the expense of focus and
attention. If they aren’t checking them every 15 minutes or
taking selfies, maybe they can focus and learn!

43. Some Proposals, cont.
• Make sure students are ready for 1 to 1 programs as
well as the teachers, infrastructure, and curriculum.
• Educate parents about digital devices and young
children: limit the time spent on the devices.
• Teach students how to unplug from technology in order
to reflect, read critically, and focus.
• Some students (and adults) need serious intervention
and some digital detox!

44. Here is help: Digital Detox, anyone?
http://www.digitalblackout.org/about/
Digital blackout website--has a program to help
schools show students the value of unplugging.
CAN THEY GO THREE DAYS
WITHOUT FACEBOOK?
TWITTER? TEXTING?
WHAT MIGHT THEY LEARN?

45. More Practical Suggestions I give my students
• Set priorities for each day. I carry a small clipboard with
me to classes and meetings: it helps me to keep on task
and make note of things I need to do.
• Get something done before you let yourself get
sucked into social media early in the day. Those cat
videos, political rants, holiday recipes, and photos of the
grandchildren can wait
• TURN OFF ALL OF THE ALERTS that you can possibly
handle on your smartphone, tablet, and laptop.

46. More Practical Suggestions, cont.
• Lower our expectations! It’s okay to reflect before firing off
an answer to an email or text. It’s not a speed test in High
School typing class. (Youngsters, ask a Baby Boomer
about “typing” classes).
• Set aside time each week to delete the glut of digital data
clogging up our lives and PCs.
• Evaluate email newsletters and unsubscribe when
possible!
• Consider making mealtimes a device-free zone: Make eye
contact, smile, and talk. Wow!

47. How to Focus: a Mind Map
The mind map was created by Jane Genovese.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/36451078204422650/
As an image pinned on Pinterest
http://learningfundamentals.com.au/presentations/focus/
Posted on her website.

48. Mind map

49. What do you think???
So, what about us -- the grown ups? Engineers, Professors,
Librarians, Business people, Journalists...are we any better?
In spite of spending 1100 hours online in the fall, I still like reading
print magazines and newspapers, and read both ebooks & print
books. I often pack my iPad, iPhone, a small notebook or clipboard. I
see many of you with smartphones, tablets, and hear you discussing
books you’ve read.
So, do those of us who read for decades before we went online
have any different hard wiring? are we better able to withstand
the onslaught of digital distraction and overload?

50. What do you think, cont.?
• Have you noticed more people staring down, not making eye
contact, and more focused on their devices during a meeting,
meal, or while out in public?
• Have you found yourself feeling distracted and overloaded by
your devices?
• Are you concerned about the findings of the CNN Report about
13 year olds, and surprised at all?
• Do you see any strategies on the mind map that you are using?

51. Works Cited
http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/
“13 Reasons The Brain Craves Infographics.” Neomam.com.
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
Norton. 2011
http://www.nicholascarr.com/ Nicholas Carr website
http://www.digitalblackout.org/about/Digital Detox. Digitalblackout.org.

52. Works Cited, cont.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/432697476678222230/
Genovese, Jane. “How to Focus in the Age of Distraction.” Pinterest pin.
http://aci.info/2014/07/12/the-data-explosion-in-2014-minute-by-
minute-infographic/
Gunelius, Susan. “Data Never Sleeps. The Data Explosion in 2014: Minute by
Minute.” Infographic. 12 July 2014.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/05/health/being-13-teens-social-media-study/
Hadad, Chuck. “Being 13: Teens and Social Media Study.” CNN. Oct. 13, 2015

53. Works Cited, cont.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yf_-5VHiR0
Hidden Gems in, "What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.“
http://www.statista.com/chart/1971/electronic-media-use/
Richter, Felix. “Americans Use Electronic Media 11+ Hours A Day
Mar 13, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI
“What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.” Published on May 6, 2013.
https://vialogue.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/the-shallows-notes-review/
Notes from The Shallows – from vialogue.wordpress.com