| Over the past quarter century, the numbers of | | | | cloisters, deserts, and retreats. Libraries, the place for |
| those diagnosed with ADHD (Attention-Deficit | | | | readers and scholars to think, have always born a |
| Hyperactivity Disorder) has increased dramatically. | | | | funereal hush. Churches and mosques are silent |
| More sophisticated diagnostic tools and social | | | | caverns, allowing individual visitors to concentrate on |
| acceptance of the malady may be a partial | | | | their prayers. High pressure examinations are |
| explanation. However, a consideration of social | | | | conducted in total silence. Mental work, such as |
| changes may be a worthwhile exercise in trying to | | | | reading, writing, homework, and studying is |
| define reasons for the widespread growth of this | | | | performed in a quiet corner or separate room.Most |
| condition.In ancient times, say the 1960s, life at home | | | | of those traditions have long gone. At the dawn of |
| and work bore little resemblance to our current | | | | the Twenty-first Century, we find ourselves living in |
| climate. There had been many early electronic | | | | an atmosphere of constant noise and imperative, |
| advances and zeal for modernization permeated the | | | | will-not-be-ignored, stimuli. Our children do their |
| workplace where slow computers required hundreds | | | | homework - trying to absorb more information than |
| of square feet of office space. The invention of | | | | prior generations could even imagine - with the |
| correcting-type tape (we thought we'd died and | | | | television on, the ipod or CD blaring, the cell phone |
| gone to heaven with that one) and the adoption of | | | | ringing, and the Internet chat room demanding |
| electric typewriters was a revolution to the hordes | | | | attention.When they are done with their homework, |
| of clerks and secretaries who inhabited thousands of | | | | they play endless video games. From the simple |
| offices, taking dictation by hand and struggling with | | | | skateboard racing of entranced pre-schoolers to the |
| the vagaries of purple ink ditto and ugly yellow | | | | dark violence of adolescent contests, they spend |
| heat-responsive thermograph machines. At home, | | | | much of their time immersed in an interactive virtual |
| color spread through the vast wasteland of television | | | | world that is light years away from the flickering |
| and 45 rpm records were replaced by long playing | | | | images of the Saturday afternoon westerns we |
| albums and 8 track tapes. We gloated over AM-FM | | | | watched with awe, or the few hours of cartoons |
| stereo radios in our cars, the music drowning out the | | | | and sit coms that early television provided.Motor |
| clicks of vacuum-powered windshield wipers.We had | | | | vehicles are no longer just another means of |
| absolutely no conception of what was to come.The | | | | transportation. They have become electronics on |
| advent of cassette tapes put the entire educational | | | | wheels with boom boxes, CD players, subscriber |
| industry of shorthand trainers out of business and a | | | | radio networks, and built-in television monitors and |
| coveted skill became virtually worthless. The copy | | | | DVDs.Then we wonder at the explosion in ADHD |
| machine reduced the need for grunt office clerks, | | | | which results in medications for the condition being |
| and receptionists no longer plugged in a web of | | | | among the most popular prescriptions issued.We are |
| cables to connect callers. Word processing systems | | | | surrounded by adults and children who lack the |
| and then personal computers forever changed the | | | | capacity to concentrate on what they read, what |
| routine of typing.At home, we moved from records | | | | they see, and what they hear. When the brain fails |
| to cassettes to CDs to ipods. Television wasn't just | | | | to fully attend to new information, it lacks the ability |
| in color, it was cable or dish with 100 more channels | | | | to lay down memory traces and the information |
| to share its wasteland. The pong and pac-man games | | | | quickly fades away. The result is a loss of millions for |
| of bars and arcades moved into our living rooms in | | | | corporations who have to keep retraining, keep |
| ever more advanced and sophisticated forms. We | | | | reminding, keep lecturing their employees on data |
| dipped our toes into the Internet and overnight | | | | that is required for their job. Customers and |
| learned to surf like a pro. Not only did the telephone | | | | contracts are lost because forgotten information |
| lose its dial, it became a copier, then became totally | | | | leads to poor customer service, death to any |
| portable and acquired the ability to take instant | | | | business.Personal lives are diminished for those who |
| pictures, receive text messages, and provide games | | | | can't concentrate long enough to finish tasks they |
| and instant worldwide access.In the midst of this | | | | started with such good intentions. Interpersonal |
| revolution in electronics, processes, equipment, and | | | | relationships suffer due to poor communication skills |
| communication, was one entity that didn't change: the | | | | and the lack of that personal empathy which requires |
| human mind. The flexibility and untapped potential of | | | | one to intensively focus on another human being to |
| our brains allowed us to invent and implement | | | | really understand their feelings.While we continue to |
| creations that placed demands on us for which we | | | | dispense the medications that act to filter the stimuli |
| were ill-equipped.Our brains' hardwiring is virtually | | | | overload, and use psychological modification |
| unchanged from prehistoric times. Over the centuries, | | | | techniques to mold acceptable social behavior, we |
| we have learned to cram in more and more | | | | also need to look inside our own homes and practice |
| information without crashing from the overload. We | | | | preventive care. Let's limit our children's overexposure |
| handle the threat of over-stimulation by filtering the | | | | to the electronic world they love. Let's model, and |
| constant sensory bombardment. We acquire habits | | | | reinforce, the human need for quiet time and |
| and routines that allow us to carry out many of our | | | | introspection. Let's encourage reading, thinking, and |
| daily activities without having to think about what | | | | family discussions instead of using electronic |
| we're doing. When conscious thought is required, we | | | | babysitters to allow us the time to get all that |
| are most efficient when we attend to one or two | | | | unimportant "stuff" done at the expense of our |
| things at a time. We concentrate on one area in | | | | children's future.Our brains will thank us for it and our |
| order to handle the action required competently and | | | | children will have received a gift they will treasure |
| immediately. We ignore irrelevant materials floating | | | | throughout their lives.Virginia Bola is a licensed clinical |
| around us because they are not our current | | | | psychologist with deep interests in Social Psychology |
| focus.Traditionally, we have sought out quiet places | | | | and politics. She has performed therapeutic services |
| for our deep thinking. Spiritual leaders have | | | | for more than 20 years and has studied the effects |
| performed their meditations in silence, in caves, | | | | of cultural forces and employment on the individual. |