Allophile

links! hawks! must pack!

As I type this, our neighborhood hawk is perched outside the window, peering in at me...or maybe peering in because he hears the tweeting of our little parrotlelt--potential prey...

Yesterday and today's New York Times have had a series of intriguing articles about our thought-habits, lifestyles and how newer technologies (twitter! google! texting!) are affecting them. I LOVED these articles and so just have to provide links to them:

--today, a column dealing with multitasking myths by Steven Pinker the MIT/Harvard prof/guru/writer:
Mind over Mass Media
(I confess that S. and I are partial to his writings; he is incidentally very important to the fact that yesterday was our tenth anniversary. One of our first truly 'deep relationship' conversations occured one autumn evening after attending a 'sold-out' lecture by Steven Pinker on the campus of the Univ. of WA--nerdy, eh? Seriously--a fascinating lecture...and then on the walk home, S. and I. had a late dinner in a little German restaurant in the U-district just off campus...)

--in yesterday's New York Times, this article:
Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price, part of the 'Your Brain on Computers' series...

An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness
This article resonates with me because I see this so much in my students--this upcoming fall's high-school freshmen were mostly born in 1996! They've never known
an 'un-plugged-in world!'

More Americans Sense a Downside to an Always Plugged-In Existence

Here's an interactive test from the same series of articles; how 'focused' or 'multitaskable' are you?
Actually, in that link, there are two different tests...I took them and was surprised by how 'good' I was at one task, and how seemingly mediocre I was at the other...

And now, The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In
...because busy-yet-trying-to-be-conscientious parents need more reasons to feel guilt....

Obviously, because I am blogging--I am 'plugged-in' while I should be packing; THE MOVE approaches, and there's much painting to do...and the cardboard boxes multiply...GET OFF THE INTERNET!