Wait – before you go checking your doorbell video camera or you begin to search every room to see if anything is missing, let me tell you what I’m referring to. I am talking about – your brain. Now I am sure if you talk to some of my friends, they might contend that my brain has already been snatched. But allow me to explain.
As my wife and I were discussing this morning, it seems that we are hardly awake when the house phone rings, the cell phones ping and the computer joins in to clamor for our attention. As Dr. Daniel Amen contends, “When the flashing and vibrating occur while you are in the middle of an important task, it leads to poorer performance.” One study found that even if you do not read the text or email, the momentary distraction impacts your ability to complete your project.
Two scientists from the United Kingdom and France discovered that media multi-tasking can lead to structural changes in the brain and even long-lasting attentional issues. This is a result of reduced gray matter in the region of the brain the controls our attention.
So, a simple suggestion today for all of us – strive to keep our media focus at bay so that we don’t wake up one day to discover that we have been robbed of an important part of our brain. We will do better with all of our gray matter intact.