Nourishing the Mind

 

                                                   (image: youtube.com)

Nagsugod na pagpalyar an utok.

Maybe there are instances when one can feel that their minds are not functioning that much anymore. We oftentimes forget that the mind needs practice all the time. This way it will become more functional especially if we put efforts in making it better.

Engaging in reflective and critical thinking on a regular basis enhances decision-making skills and adaptability. The Harvard Business School mentioned that reflective leadership involves constant self-awareness and introspection, allowing leaders to re-assess their decisions and improve their effectiveness over time.

One key factor why people are not thinking straight is due to the influx of technological distractions like social media and online gaming. When the brain is distracted, several cognitive processes are affected, particularly those related to attention, memory, and critical thinking.

The constant notifications and easy access to social media and other applications create a fragmented attention span, making it difficult for individuals to focus on a single task for an extended period. This phenomenon, often referred to as "continuous partial attention," hampers the brain's ability to engage in deep, focused thinking and problem-solving (Hall, 2022),

Continuous Partial Attention (CPA) is an automatic process that enables people to simultaneously pay attention to several sources of information, whilst scanning for relevant information. It allows people to shift from superficially concentrating on a lot of information to focusing on highly relevant information during a short attention span. This is brought about by the infamous “multitasking”.

In 1998, Linda Stone, a former Apple and Microsoft executive, coined a phrase that gives a name to the crux of our technology-enabled addiction to information: “continuous partial attention.” Through the miniaturization and proliferation of wireless technologies, we now have the ability to become “a node on the network” in order “not to miss anything.”

But there is always a disadvantage to CPA. Research has shown the slow demise of critical thinking and cognition with technology-enabled addiction as the culprit.

The insidious part is that people do not notice their own impairment. They are under the impression that the brain can do more than it is capable of. When in fact, it is degenerating.