Communications - July 2009

Society | DOI: 10.1145/1538788.1538796
Samuel Greengard
Are We Losing our Ability
to Think Critically?

Computer technology has enhanced lives in countless ways, but some experts believe it might be affecting people’s ability to think deeply.

SoCiety Has lonG the ability to think beyond the ordinary. In a world where knowledge is revered and innovation equals

cherished

progress, those able to bring forth greater insight and understanding are destined to make their mark and blaze a trail to greater enlightenment.

“Critical thinking as an attitude is embedded in Western culture. There is a belief that argument is the way to finding truth,” observes Adrian West, research director at the Edward de Bono Foundation U.K., and a former

computer science lecturer at the University of Manchester. “Developing our abilities to think more clearly, richly, fully—individually and collectively— is absolutely crucial [to solving world problems].”

To be sure, history is filled with tales of remarkable thinkers who have defined and redefined our world views: Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity; Voltaire altering perceptions about society and religious dogma; and Albert Einstein redefining the view of the universe. But in an age of computers, video games, and the Internet, there’s a growing question about how technology is changing critical thinking and whether society benefits from it.

Although there’s little debate that computer technology complements— and often enhances—the human mind in the quest to store information and process an ever-growing tangle of bits and bytes, there’s increasing concern that the same technology is changing the way we approach complex problems and conundrums, and making it more difficult to really think.

“We’re exposed to [greater amounts of] poor yet charismatic thinking, the fads of intellectual fashion, opinion, and mere assertion,” says West. “The wealth of communications and in-

for better or worse, exposure to technology fundamentally changes how people think.

formation can easily overwhelm our reasoning abilities.” What’s more, it’s ironic that ever-growing piles of data and information do not equate to greater knowledge and better de-cision-making. What’s remarkable, West says, is just “how little this has affected the quality of our thinking.”

According to the National Endowment for the Arts, literary reading declined 10 percentage points from 1982 to 2002 and the rate of decline is accelerating. Many, including Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children’s Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, believe that a greater focus on visual media exacts a toll. “A drop-off in reading has possibly contributed to a decline in critical thinking,” she says. “There is a greater emphasis on real-time media and multitasking rather than focusing on a single thing.”

Nevertheless, the verdict isn’t in and a definitive answer about how technology affects critical thinking is not yet available. Instead, critical thinking lands in a mushy swamp somewhere between perception and reality; measurable and incomprehensible. It’s largely a product of our own invention—and a subjective one at that. And although

technology alters the way we see, hear, and assimilate our world—the act of thinking remains decidedly human.

Rethinking Thinking

Arriving at a clear definition for critical thinking is a bit tricky. Wikipedia describes it as “purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or what to do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments.” Overlay technology and that’s where things get complex. “We can do the same critical-reasoning operations without technology as we can with it—just at different speeds and with different ease,” West says.

What’s more, while it’s tempting to view computers, video games, and the Internet in a monolithic good or bad way, the reality is that they may be both good and bad, and different technologies, systems, and uses yield entirely different results. For example, a computer game may promote critical thinking or diminish it. Reading on the Internet may ratchet up one’s ability to analyze while chasing an endless array of hyperlinks may undercut deeper thought.

Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University of Science and Technology, says: “Critical thinking can be accelerated multifold by the right technology.” On the other hand, “The technology distraction level is accelerating to the point where thinking deeply is difficult. We are overwhelmed by a constant barrage of devices and tasks.” Worse: “We increasingly suffer from the Google syndrome. People accept what they read and believe what they see online is fact when it is not.”