Can Search Engines Affect The Attention Span Of Youth?
How Search Engines Affect The Attention Span of Youth?
Search Engines provide the required information from the World Wide Web in a very systematic way, but it affects the attention span of youth both positively as well as negatively.
4 Positive Effects Of Search Engines On The Attention Span of Youth
These various purposes served by search engines have surely made the life of our youth very easy.
1. Information
Search engines are helpful for the youth to complete their assignments and collect information. This way, they can pay more attention to the tasks they have to complete. News found on search engines helps the youth understand everything going on in the world at the time, and he connected to the rest of the world. It moves their attention to informative articles that can be helpful for them in the longer run. It helps in mental growth and also increases the knowledge and productivity of youth.
2. Entertainment
Search engines also make it easier for the youth to take a break from tiresome activities by providing entertainment services. It freshens up their mind and helps to generate better new ideas.
3. Making life decisions
The information found on these search engines also makes it easier for youth to make life decisions. This is because it provides information about how their choices might affect them in the long run, which is very important at their age.
4. Motivation
They can also gain motivation through the motivational videos, quotes and related stuff found on these search engines when they are going through a rough time in life and need encouragement to keep moving forward. Since almost all the daily life activities of the youth are related to search engines, they spend most of their time on search engines which have grasped their attention, increasing the attention span of our youth towards the search engines.
Role of Search Engines
SEARCH ENGINES CAN BRING THE WHOLE WORLD TO YOUTH PALM
4 Negative Effects Of Search Engines On The Attention Span of Youth
However, that is only one side of the picture. If you look at the other side, you will see that the excessive comfort provided to youth by these search engines has far-reaching effects.
Search Engines affect the attention span …
1. Less Creativity
It reduces their creative thinking skills by providing them with all the ideas they should be coming up with on their own. It also makes them lazy because they know that they just need to type their question and will receive all the information they need in a few seconds. Hence, they keep their work pending till the last moment and instead waste their time and attention on unnecessary activities like social media browsing or even using the search engines for various entertainment purposes. Hence, their attention diverts from real-life issues to these search engines which have caught their attention.
2. Unfocused Behaviour
It also leads to unfocused behaviour among the youth because the excessive use of these search engines moves their attention from the things that need their attention to useless activities. Hence, the attention span of the youth also reduces as their attention quickly diverts from one matter to another. It happens due to the wide range and variety of content available on these search engines.
3. Confusion
Moreover, confusion is also observed among the youth due to the overflow of knowledge on these search engines. The unnecessary information found there makes it difficult for them to keep their attention on the required material and find the things they need. Hence once again, it diverts the attention from the youngster’s aim for which he has used the search engine.
4. Wastage of time
Hence, it also leads to a wastage of time. Let’s take an example. If a youngster is researching for his assignment and sees an advertisement he is attracted to he might open it instead of researching. It can divert his attention to useless things. That would also lead to wastage of time, and the attention span required by the matter of concern will be unable to be reached.
Conclusion
As a result, we can surely conclude that search engines positively affect the attention span of youth to an extent as long as it is maintained, on the matter of concern. In modern times, social engines are a great source of searching and comparing things to choose the best. Youth use these search engines in their learning, studies, research, information, shopping, grocery etc. Hence, they can save time and fatigue from going to malls, markets, and libraries. But as attention span diverts to other things the search engine becomes harmful. Therefore, excessive use and dependence on these search engines might cause harm to the attention span of youth. It might even lead to unfocused behaviour among them, which may lead to making regrettable life choices. The root cause will be the lack of attention and extra belief in the content found on these search engines.
