distraction (FYP 2017)
The internet contains endless distractions, causing us to shift our cognitive habits from analytical to superficial (Carr). This project expresses this effect on our brains via a narration of our experience browsing the net - it is taken, removed from its original source and made physical while still embodying a connection to their respective digital forms.
As this project is rather theoretically and conceptually-heavy, here’s some background - I first got to studying this topic while looking into the effect of the media on our identity and discovered Nicholas Carr who discusses how the use of the Internet has affected our literacy. He says that this happens because of “neuroplasticity” - which means that new neural circuits can form throughout our lives and old ones might grow stronger or weaker or wither away entirely depending on what tasks the brain is called on to perform.
So in this case, the Internet contains a mountain of information that is endless. It also contains tons of hyperlinks, moving texts and videos” that function as distractions. These factors make it virtually impossible to get through all the content with the limited amount of time that one has. Also, the fact that we can only absorb so much information at any one time means that is only natural for and expected of people to be unable to handle all of it. As such, we have adapted to this by shifting our cognitive habits from one that was more complex and analytical to one that is superficial and skimming. In his book, “The Shallows”, Carr states that Internet has caused a reduction in our ability to focus and think as we have become used to absorbing information in this new way - what this means for a lot of us is that we become unable to critically evaluate that information because of the sheer amount of data on the Internet that we are supposed to take in nowadays because we are skimming.
When we repeatedly task-switch, our brain gets used to task-switching instead of focusing on one task at a time. Soon enough, getting distracted becomes out of our control. The way that the brain rewires this new habit is a lot like muscle-memory. Learning to ride a bicycle becomes a visceral memory such that one is still able to ride a bicycle even after a long time of not riding one. These actions become unconscious.
This project aims to expose the effects that the Internet has had on our brains, via a narration of our experience while browsing the net. Although most people use the Internet today, the target audience for this project is millennials. I chose to focus on millennials as they are the main frequent users of the Internet.
microsite
This microsite provides an overview of the premise of the project, and insights of the process of each outcome which is integral to the final outcome. it adopts the same art direction for consistency and overall coherence. The use of the visual metaphor of a maze and the cheese embodies the immensely distracting nature of the Internet, which makes it difficult to navigate to get to where/what we are looking for.
It also blogposts containing my personal insights about the topic, mostly gained from mini experiments that I have tried out myself.
