Have Your Critical Thinking And Analysis Skills Declined Because of Technology?

Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?

ScienceDaily (2009-01-29) -- As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to psychological research.

A quote in this article that really attracted my attention was:

Another study Greenfield analyzed found that college students who watched "CNN Headline News" with just the news anchor on screen and without the "news crawl" across the bottom of the screen remembered significantly more facts from the televised broadcast than those who watched it with the distraction of the crawling text and with additional stock market and weather information on the screen.

I admit that sometimes I do focus more on the crawling text than on the news anchor. Yet, this is a conscious decision. I can get just the facts and not the extra commentary by the news anchor. Since the crawl is typically geared to the slowest common dominator reading speed, it does sometimes take too long to read some headlines. In Europe, they just post the headline at the bottom without the crawl. I like that better as I can read it quickly and see it all at once.

Perhaps the students in this study were tested on the minute facts as presented by the news anchor. So, sure, the students with the "news crawl" probably were not focusing on those types of details. If they were tested on how many diferent news-related items they remembered, they might have scored higher than the students who were just watching the news anchor. So, as with any test, you can get the results you want for your study just by asking the “right” questions.

Read the article yourself and let me know what you think. Are your critical thinking skills declining because of technology????

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University of California - Los Angeles. "Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?." ScienceDaily 29 January 2009. 11 July 2009 .