Clip thinking prevents the mind from evolving

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Professor, Doctor of Psychology, Senior Researcher of the Department of Organization of Research Work of the FSBI All-Russian Center for Emergency and Radiation Medicine named after V. I. A. M. Nikiforov EMERCOM of Russia Rada Granovskaya.

- It is connected with the fact that young people today perceive new material in a different way: very quickly and in a different volume. For example, teachers and parents moan and cry that children and modern youth do not read books. This is indeed the case. Many of them do not see the need for books. They are forced to adapt to a new type of perception and pace of life. It is believed that over the past century, the rate of change around a person has increased 50 times. It is quite natural that other methods of information processing arise. Moreover, they are supported via TV, computer, Internet.

Children who grew up in the era of high technology see the world differently. Their perception is not consistent and not textual. They see the whole picture and perceive information like a clip. Clip thinking is characteristic of today's youth. People of my generation, who learned from books, hardly imagine how this is possible at all.

- For example, we conducted such an experiment. The child is playing a computer game. Periodically, he is given instructions for the next step, about three pages of text. An adult sits nearby, who, in principle, reads quickly. But he manages to read only half a page, and the child has already processed all the information and made the next move.

- When children were asked during the experiment how they read so quickly, they answered that they had not read all the material. They looked for key points that let them know what to do. To illustrate how this principle works, I can give you one more example. Imagine that you are tasked with finding old galoshes in a large chest in the attic. You quickly throw everything away, get to the galoshes and go down with them. And then some fool comes up to you and asks you to list everything that you threw away, and even say in what order it was there. But this was not part of your task.

There were also experiments. Children were shown a picture for a certain number of milliseconds. And they described it like this: someone lifted something on someone. In the picture there was a fox, which stood on its hind legs, and in the front one held a net and swung at a butterfly. The question is whether the children needed these details, or whether it was enough for the problem they were solving that “someone lifted something on someone else”. Now the rate of information flow is such that details are not needed for many tasks. Only a general drawing is needed.

The school also works on clip thinking in many ways. Children are forced to read books. But in reality, the school is structured in such a way that textbooks are not books. Pupils read one piece, then a week later - another, and at this time another piece from the other ten textbooks. Thus, in proclaiming linear reading, the school is guided by a completely different principle. You don't have to read the entire tutorial in a row. One lesson, then ten others, then this one again - and so on. As a result, contradictions arise between what the school requires and what it actually offers.

- First of all, this type of thinking is characteristic of young people somewhere under 20 years old. The generation, whose representatives are now 20–35 years old, can be said to be at the crossroads.

- Most. But, of course, a certain number of children with a consistent type of thinking remain, who need a monotonous and consistent amount of information in order to come to some kind of conclusion.

- It depends a lot on temperament. Phlegmatic people are more likely to perceive large amounts of information. It also depends on the environment, on the tasks it offers, on the pace at which they arrive. It is no coincidence that psychologists call the old type people of the book, and the new type people of the screen.

- Very high switching speed. They have the ability to simultaneously read, send SMS, call someone - in general, do many things in parallel. And the situation in the world is such that more and more such people are needed. Because today, a delayed reaction for any qualification is not a positive quality. Only some specialists and in exceptional situations need to work with a large amount of information.

Even the German industrialist Krupp wrote that if he were faced with the task of ruining competitors, he would simply provide them with the most highly qualified specialists. Because they don't start working until they receive and process 100% of the information. And by the time they receive it, the decision that is required of them is no longer relevant.

A quick response, although not accurate enough, is more important in most cases now. Everything has accelerated. The technical production system has changed. Even 50-60 years ago, a car consisted of, say, 500 parts. And they needed a very good, qualified specialist who would find a specific part and quickly replace it. Now the technique is mainly made from blocks. If there is a breakdown in any block, it is completely removed, and then another is quickly inserted. Such qualifications, as before, are no longer needed for this. And this idea of speed is permeating everywhere today. Now the main indicator is speed.

- There is a decline in qualifications. People with clip thinking cannot conduct deep logical analysis and cannot solve sufficiently complex problems.

And here I would like to draw your attention to the fact that now there is an interesting stratification. A very small percentage of wealthy and professionally advanced people educate their children primarily without a computer, requiring them to practice classical music and suitable sports. That is, in fact, they are educated according to the old principle, which contributes to the formation of consistent, not clip-like thinking. A striking example - Apple founder Steve Jobs has always limited the number of modern devices that children use at home.

- Of course they can. First of all, we must try to expand their social circle. It is live communication that gives something irreplaceable.

- Unfortunately, this is largely true. In one of the American articles, I recently read a piece of advice for university professors: "Do not recommend books to your listeners, but recommend a chapter from a book, or rather a paragraph." It is much less likely that the book will be picked up if it is recommended to read it in its entirety. Sellers in stores notice that books thicker than three hundred pages are rarely bought or even considered. And the question is not about the price. The fact is that people within themselves have reallocated time for different types of activities. They would rather sit on social networks than read a book. This is more interesting for them. People go to other forms of entertainment.

- That's right, this is the direction of civilization. But, nevertheless, one must understand where this is leading. Those who followed the line of clip thinking will never become an elite. There is a very deep stratification of society. So those who allow their children to sit at the computer for hours are not preparing the best future for them.