With the mass influx of people into the internet, I am finding more and more that people are becoming (for a lack of a better term) non thinking. I guess I am more surprised at myself for not seeing this as the next logical step in the shortened attention span debate. The news media, for years has been telling us that children have shortened attention spans due to television and other sound byte information delivery systems. I never realized, or maybe never noticed that the if you shorten the amount of time that a persons brain will process information coming in, it just may become accustomed to the shortened processing time over all, and in turn reduce the amount of time spent on processing information heading out.

What I am referring to is how people will not or can not see the next logical step in a process. Case in point: I was having a conversation the other day with a person and we had gotten on the subject of ISP (Internet Service Provider) technical support. Having some experience in this realm I asked as to what the problem was, this person was having. As it was explained to me, this person was upset that she had to be connected to the internet to get her e-mail. She seemed to believe that when she turned on her computer that the mail should pop right into her mail program. When I mentioned to her that in order for her to do things on the net she must be connected to it. I proceeded to explain in some detail, how web pages and downloaded programs got to her computer, through her modem, which in turn was connected to her phone line. She seemed to understand as she was nodding and "uh-huhing" through my short explanation. As I came to close, I asked her if she had any questions as to what I had said. She said "No, but what does have to do with me getting my mail?"

I guess I assume too much anymore. No, I don't. What I am not doing, is realizing that most people choose not to think. Most people are dependant on sound bytes and news ticker output for their source of world information. Most people refuse to read beyond the headline of a news paper. Is it too much to ask to for someone to read a book or a newspaper article? Is it more that John Q. Public can deal with to expect that he know something about something before he shoots off his mouth? Maybe so. It doesn't require more than 5 seconds of thought processes to turn off the T.V.

To those that don't or wont think...

6:15