ADD Lifestyles, The Library, and Awesomeness

[crankyoldman]

Another sort of braindump, since I need this out of my head before I scan my notes again for my test.

So I went to the library yesterday for part of my study time and to return some slightly overdue books (which luckily only cost me $0.90, since I totally was only two days late). I was looking for the next book on Flow (which relates it to creativity specifically, which is actually what I've really decided to focus on, due to the freaky voodoo of two of my classes lining up like that) but it wasn't there, so I picked up another book recc from History Gast (Blink by Malcolm Gladwell), some Jung book that caught my eye, and then I made a bee-line for the graphic novels.



As part of my study, I've been looking at things with pictures more, trying to sort of wake up that side of my brain more. I'd forgotten the impact illustrations had on my memory, specifically color ones. This is totally what gave me the idea to color code my notes after printing them out, and I'm probably going to babble about that stuff later, because I've become such an organization nerd. Anyway.

I picked up Watchmen. I've been tempted to get it from the library for a while, because it's yellow and it's Alan Moore related and I think I rather like Alan. I know, some of you are like, "omg, you've never read that?" but keep in mind that, well, things like comics and video games weren't actually encouraged by my parents. It wasn't until I started dating a guy with no connection to reality that I got exposed to all this stuff that takes up my time now. I was a kid that read more nonfiction than fiction, mind you. Voluntarily.

All this weird reading on intuition, reaction, creativity and all that and being linked to an article yesterday sort of got me thinking about ADD as a cultural thing. Because it really has gotten that way. That's one of the major problems with the traditional lecture format in education, is that culturally, we have no attention spans. Sure, part of me says we simply need to get our damn kids to sit their asses down, but really, it's a little too late for that now.

That's been a major stumbling block in my own progress... I don't have ADD, I can focus just fine when I want to. But I've gotten very very comfortable with the mindset of multitasking and switching between activities. I have a very cyclic nature to my interests, and I sort of have to stir them up to stay on a long term project. I blame part of this (because I really wasn't always like this) to my disillusionment with the system as it stands, and losing a great deal of the excitement I used to have with things. Well, until recently. This semester reminded me that I can honestly get excited about learning again.

The biggest thing I've worked on is to do one thing at a time. This may sound, well, like common sense, but today that kind of focus is only rewarded if you're making money. And you can't keep up that kind of focus for eight hours a day, like employers want. In fact, I suspect that kind of time imposition and forced structure really kills a lot of productivity. This is a direct contrast to the "fun" things we're encouraged to do--television itself has become a kind of ADD, flipping between scenes, commercials. In fact, they want you to channel-surf, because chances are you'll stumble on their show or advertisement.

The funny thing about simply doing one thing at a time? Shit gets done faster. I know, crazy, right? This is why I won't leave my programming class's lab until I'm done (or done to my satisfaction) with the assignment. This is probably also not helped by insomnia, because the best time for me to focus is at about 2 am. But since I've started waking up, I'm also pretty focused in the mornings. I can't do shit in the afternoon, that's usually when I start an LJ entry. XD

Anyway, off that tangent, what the hell does ADD have to do with what I'm studying, in school or at work?

A lot, actually. It's extremely hard to get a kid interested enough to focus on anything these days, but video games do a damn good job of it. Educators have been trying to figure it out for years, and even now, there's only just a little bit of work to sort of explain it. It goes back to what I said about excitement. It doesn't have to actually be shiny though, just... it has to trick the mind out of the mundane. The creativity and imagination of youth is inspired mainly by the fact we don't know much of anything. So everything feels fresh. The repetition and predictability of adulthood effectively makes creativity and imagination harder to tap into.

How I think a lot of us adjust to this loss (because it's a loss, and it's making us miserable) is by flicking between things until they are no longer stale. The fact that this is occurring at younger and younger ages absolutely scares the crap out of me. I know that my bosses' kids are alright, because they can entertain themselves. This is not the case with a lot of children anymore. Shit, I remember that I could entertain myself for hours with a gyroscope.

In designing problems that were interesting, all my scrapped first ideas were, well, too complicated. Even the Nuclear Reactor problem that I am so proud of has improvements to be made. I was a measure shocked that the problem that annoyed me the most because it's an example of idiocy that I spent a month cleaning up into a better lesson was the best received (who knew that kids would like a rate problem? I sure as fuck didn't think they would). You just need the proper hook, reasonable goals, and accessible tools.

People with actual ADD, I'm sorry. I only hope that you have found ways to cope. I couldn't imagine being unable to focus evar. I wouldn't be the person I am today if I couldn't focus like a mad scientist every once in a while (that's how I wrote my first ff_exchange story, it was late enough at night and well... I hit flow).

But culturally, we can adjust to these attention spans, and we can sharpen them. I really think that. And I don't think it's through text, but pictures. Which is where this kind of connects to the graphic novel I picked up. My god, I missed out on a lot as a kid. Graphic novels and comics are so rich in storytelling sometimes. And even if some may think it "takes the imagination out of it", somehow, it doesn't. Expressions are interpreted. How we put together all the images, how we sequence... it can change the effect of a story. It's kind of amazing.

What encourages bad focus is passivity, I think. The real challenge is to insert people back into their own activities and education, make them the stewards again.

Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble, mainly just needed it out of my head. Also warming up for essay questions on my exam. XD Always helps if I've flicked into the mode right beforehand. Because I totally wrote this ramble in one go. Yay.


~Cendri

Comments

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

I think the reason so many kids have ADD is that they've been falsely diagnosed with ADD and given medicine to deal with their fake ADD, and thusly they are doing what they were expected to do in the first place.

I never had a problem either, and I'm sort of the same way- multi-tasking came super easy for me. I actually work WAY better with like 20 credit hours/full time job/etc because I sit down and say I need to get this done in xx time and I have to, and I will, and then I do it. But people are so medicated nowadays for all these "illnesses" and problems and whatnot, I think we are making it worse in society. xD

[angelari.livejournal.com]

A lot of kids have ADD. Plenty of kids don't, and there are probably kids who have been misdiagnosed. Modern society isn't very good at actually providing kids with the equipment to be able to sit still and focus on one thing at a time. But we also have no way of telling whether the sudden increase in mental illnesses is due to better early identification, a sudden societal desire to explain different mental functionings as "illness," or an actual increase in problems due to environmental factors like pollution.

The way to tell whether someone is being falsely medicated or not is simple - how they respond to Ritalin. Ritalin is a stimulant, and if you give a stimulant to someone who actually has ADD, they calm down. I wasn't actually diagnosed until I was an adult, and one of the flags that got me looking into it in the first place was the fact that caffeine relaxes me. I never get the too-much-coffee jitters; the more coffee I drink, the easier it is to sit down and focus. But I have the quiet version of ADD - when I couldn't focus in class, I snuck books into my lap or wrote fic or stared out the window.

[katmillia.livejournal.com]

ZOMG your icon rocks. xD

[angelari.livejournal.com]

Thanks. XD

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Modern society isn't very good at actually providing kids with the equipment to be able to sit still and focus on one thing at a time.

That's where I think the social ADD comes in, a little? To some extent, consumerism and marketing require us to be flippant and easily bored.

~Cendri

[angelari.livejournal.com]

Very true. I was just reading about a book that talks about "cultural ADD" due to the intense proliferation of devices that force us to multitask.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

I really have to wonder the extent of damage that does on people, especially kids. Because for the ones that are "normal" and are just being brats, they're getting rewarded, but if you have a disorder, you're punished? Mixed signals. Never good.

I mean, for instance, I had teachers saying in class you had to study, and then some of my classmates getting by simply because they absorb everything they hear. I wasn't ever taught how to study. I was warned I'd need to learn, but no one offered to teach me. I just get frustrated that teaching has mostly become "stand up at the front of the class and reread some notes".

Also, you know how you're distracted by sound? It's my focus mechanism. Headphones on, tune everything out. Has really helped my mood, too. But everyone has issues, clinical or otherwise.

~Cendri

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you want to talk about over-medication and quick fixes, my grandma's generation was pretty bad about that. I think nowadays the medical process has been broken out of the holistic context of its origins, but if you go to the right people it's not so bad. There are at least specialists now.

The problem with the sociological-psychological system is that they are treated rather separately, when a sociological condition can cause a psychological and vice versa. I just find it interesting that now that medicine can link biological contexts to behavioral ones that the sociologists are starting to look at it.

~Cendri

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

To me it seems lot of the problems with the younger generations these days is that they’re learning the behaviors from their parents. It really isn’t terrible hard (though it does take work and willingness) to get a child to actually sit there and focus on pretty much anything and I mean boring things kids would usual not want to focus on like Sunday school lessons.

Most adults in my parent’s generation have little to no self disciple which was a shock when I moved out into the working world and started interacting with them more.

So unless a child gets lucky with a mentor or personal inspiration they don’t get the chance to learn how to focus on things. It’s like while some people can miss with they don’t know must don’t so they never go looking for it, if that makes any sense.

So I’m pretty sure I’m agreeing with you, just a little bit tired and wordy.

Graphic novels are pretty awesome if a bit pricy. My parent were the sort that any reading even if it was junk was teaching you something so if all you’d read was comics then they’d buy comics or magic cards in the case of my brother.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Oh god, don't get me on the parent rant.

And a "boring" thing like a Sunday school lesson is simple, though. They're not being bombarding with tons of things, so they can at least practice focusing.

And I'll bet they listen to some extent because "work and willingness" requires a little more than passive lecturing. I know the that lecturers I pay the most attention to I feel as if they are talking conversationally, not reciting?

If that makes any sense. XD

~Cendri

[angelari.livejournal.com]

ADD is not the inability to focus evar. What it actually does is makes you incapable of selectively focusing on a single thing - the rest of the universe, including the inside of your head, is just too loud. I have 9 windows and 12 tabs open right now, and I'm just jumping between them as my focus shifts. I'm having a little bit of a problem, too, because I'm trying to type this comment, and several of my co-workers are having several disparate conversations in the background, and I'm very easily distracted by sounds.

I know a lot of people who like graphic novels. Personally, I have a hard time with them, because I have to make myself slow down and look at the pictures.

Really, and I'm kind of thinking out loud here, so forgive the ramblingness, I think the fundamental problem with ADD is the inability to choose your focal priorities. Certain things always have priorities over others, regardless of whether it's appropriate. Sounds, then words, then pictures - which means I not only get distracted by other people's conversations, but squeaky noises drive me straight up the wall and render me completely incapable of concentration; and I can't look at pictures when there are words on the page too. It's weird and hard to explain, but there you are.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess I meant it would suck being unable to tune out stuff, because yeah. I just think it's interesting that there's social and psychological ADD, is all.

~Cendri

[lassarina]

I like having a lot of things that need doing, but I focus on one thing at a time as a general rule. Example: I have six stories upcoming for Kinkfest. I will open six word documents and flip back and forth between them as my brain bites at different thoughts, but once one of them clicks, I will work on that one exclusively until it's done.

My job specifically and explicitly requires constant multitasking, but on those occasions when I *can* sit and work on one thing constantly, I get it done really really fast. And I will sit and play the same video game, or read the same book, for hours upon hours at a time. I've always been like this. Just because I *can* multitask doesn't mean I *will.* However, most of the time, I write better with distractions - so I usually have AIM on while I write, particularly because then I can whine at people when it's uncooperative until something sparks.

[tijuana-pirate.livejournal.com]

Always an interesting question, problems with kids education. I think it's probably a question of balance. On one hand, I think there's a definite place for being tough with kids (sometimes they really do just need to sit down!). On the other hand, I've met a lot of adults who forget that kids are kids and not little adults. We're too hard on them sometimes. Kids are allowed to get distracted and ansty! Funny how we forget that.

There's an argument that we structure kids too much now - with soccer practice and dance and girl guides ... Maybe half the reason why kids can't self-entertain is that we don't let them. There's as much creativity in organizing a game of pick-up on the street as anything else, I think. I bet it's even more valuable than repetitive math problems.

-T. pirate

yeah, I can understand that.......

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

after getting off the net, I have to slow down and 'reremember' how to go slower and concentrate on one thing at a time. Usually, I write before I blog and that's the reason. The net makes me move very fast.

[t3h-w0lfy.livejournal.com]

I totally get what you're saying about the whole "excitement" factor. I hated having to take biology in school last year -- it just wasn't something that interested me. But then Ky and I got off on this tangent about Geostigma and how it was a lot like radiation sickness and if we were smart enough to write it/research it or could find a med student to write it for us, it would be totally awesome to see someone try to apply some kind of logical sense to Geostigma. ...Of course, I'm trying to do that to fandom all the time. Apply real-life kind of sense to it.
But I guess my point was video games make things more interesting?
Or that taking something you're passionate about/obsessed with and applying it to other things makes the other things more interesting?
...Aww, I can't remember.