Week 8

     So this relates more to last week's discussion more than it does to this week's, but it's a topic I found very interesting: the eight second attention span. The fact that as a species, we now only have an average attention span is unbelievable. We are highly developed individuals, and yet we struggle to maintain focus on even the simplest of tasks. I believe that most of our inability to focus stems from how much we have going on in our lives in today's time. While previously we had work, school, and family vying for our attention, we now have to add social media to that list. We constantly want to know what is going on in the lives of not only our friends and family but also everyone else in the world. In order for that to happen, we seem to need to continuously check our devices. It is hard to stay focused on only one thing, when there are so many other things you need to pay attention to as well. I know for me personally, I find it extremely hard to focus my attention on one thing for more than a couple minutes. My mom always tells me I have undiagnosed ADHD because I constantly need to be fiddling with something, but at the same time I have trouble focusing my attention on just one thing. I seem to always be doing at least two things at once; not because I don't have enough time to do them one at a time, but because I can't stand just sitting down and doing one thing at a time.
     Veering off that topic, another discussion of interest revolved around how the internet now allows us to connect with so many people and through that easy connection we can easily find things we are missing. You see all those posts on Facebook of people seeking their birth parents. Before it would have been nearly impossible for them to find their parents, especially if it was a closed adoption. Now, however, by just posting a photo with the information of their birth, other people are able to share it and get that information to the masses. Eventually, the birth parents will most likely see that information. I am amazed at how well social media works at getting information to the masses to help find a certain person, a missing item, etc. I can't even imagine how much better it will be in the future because social media is constantly changing, adapting, and improving to make distributing information easier. And while social media facilitates the distribution of information, it is really the people who post the original status and all those who are willing to stand it that truly distribute the information. As we mentioned in class, the tools of the internet simply remove the obstacles that used to be present when attempted to share information to the masses.