Is the World Becoming Short-Sighted (via Simoleon Sense)

As individuals, it sometimes feels that way. Information is streamed in ever greater volumes and at ever rising velocities. Timelines for decision-making appear to have been compressed. Pressures to deliver immediate results seem to have intensified. Tenure patterns for some of our most important life choices (marriage, jobs, money) are in secular decline. Some have called this the era of “quarterly capitalism”.

These forces may be altering not just the way we act, but also the way we think. Neurologically, our brains are adapting to increasing volumes and velocities of information by shortening attention spans. Technological innovation, such as the world wide web, may have caused a permanent neurological rewiring, as did previous technological revolutions such as the printing press and typewriter. Like a transistor radio, our brains may be permanently retuning to a shorter wave-length.

You can check here this very interesting speech by a Bank of England official on the vanishing idea of long term: http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2011/05/the-short-short-long.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InfectiousGreed+%28Paul+Kedrosky%27s+Infectious+Greed%29