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Does technology impoverish the mind? In some ways, this is a double-edged question. If you look at it historically, the answer is both yes and no.

It's obvious that the industrialized world today cannot exist without technology. Everything from the Creative Arts to agriculture depends on it. It has changed the world, its effects sometimes positive and sometimes not.

Does anyone remember the days before cell phones? I do. I have one, and I rarely use it; I didn't grow up with it, so I'm not wholly used to it. But many people of this generation couldn't function without it.

I think it does say something about the overall mental condition of the human race if we can't leave the house, even for groceries, without our little phones. Likewise, I think it says something about us when we can't go one day without logging on to the Internet.

We can take this back to the advent of television and motion pictures. When that came along, everyone suddenly had an excuse not to read or to do any worthy activity (such as exploring nature). Everyone began to lock the world away and sit for hours staring at talking pictures.

One of the biggest signs of mental poverty I see is in the attention span. It seems you are well read nowadays with a cover-to-cover reading of a magazine. I know people who read online all the time, but they can't make their way through a four-hundred-page novel.

It makes me, as a novelist, wonder what the future of reading is. The whole point of a story is to become swept along, discovering new vistas, until you reach the climax. Am I the only one who believes that people want the climax first in today's world?

However, technology has helped bring our minds out of poverty at times. The invention of the printing press is a shining example of this.

For ages, the "civilized" world was full of illiteracy. With the advent of the printing press, common people had access to precious religious stories, poetry, educational texts, and other documents that they could study on their own and in their own time. I'd venture to guess that the level of common intelligence and the common attention span soared during this time.

If you look at ancient peoples, one thing they undisputedly had in common was a superior ability of mental focus. Building, painting, and other activities were long and laborious processes because they had to do things with their brains and hands.

In the last few decades, the number of people diagnosed with ADD or ADHD has grown tremendously. With the rise of technology, and its mind-spinning quickness, I guess it's no surprise.

Our society's motto might be, "Give me everything and give it to me yesterday," and this is linked directly to the rise of technology and the quickness of its growth.

I think we could all benefit by tearing ourselves away from the television or the monitor for a while and taking a long walk. The mind is like any machine, in that it needs rest now and then.

Some might say that's what sleep is for, but making a conscious effort to slow down and take a deep breath is far more beneficial than the latest celebrity scandal on the Web.

Learn more about this author, Jason Lusk.
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