Wednesday, November 02, 2022

Modern liberalism’s advancement of efficiency and corporate interests, under the intellectual guise of human flourishing, have contributed to this problem. Replacing God, community and family with individualism has left people looking within themselves to find meaning that is not there.

 

וואס וועט זיין מיט די קינדער?

 

Why Are Our Attention Spans Shortening?

 

Students discuss the reasons people are so easily distracted.

 

 

Editor’s note: In this Future View, students discuss decreasing attention spans. Next week we’ll ask, “Some colleges use race as a factor when admitting applicants. Should colleges be able to continue to admit students based on race? Or should we be opposing affirmative action on college campuses? 

Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before Nov. 8. The best responses will be published that night. Click here to submit a video to our Future View Snapchat show.

New World Chains

We live in a civilization attached to instant pleasure. Anyone who has used TikTok knows this. Everything in our world, from a rise in sedentary jobs to videogames, sexual promiscuity, pornography and nonstop music, feeds on an appetite for instant pleasure and low attention spans.

Modern liberalism’s advancement of efficiency and corporate interests, under the intellectual guise of human flourishing, have contributed to this problem. Replacing God, community and family with individualism has left people looking within themselves to find meaning that is not there.

How will we pursue what is honorable, chivalrous and beautiful if we cannot maintain an attention span longer than eight seconds? Romantic virtues aside, millennials and Gen Z are experiencing astronomical levels of anxiety and depression. Could a lack of self-agency and control contribute to these heightened feelings of anxiety and vanity? An inability to put aside pleasure is apparent in our declining marriage rate: If individuals struggle to devote seconds of attention to a task, how will they devote the rest of their lives to a partner?

We are responsible for addressing this attention span crisis, lest the corporations drugging our society continue confining us to Brave New World-style slavery.

—Chanidu Gamage, The University of British Columbia, political science

We Don’t Have Low Standards

When I turn on the TV, I am shocked by the bland content. Aside from live sports and news, networks seem to air a rotating cycle of NCIS, Judge Judy and Wheel of Fortune spinoffs—with Medicare Advantage plans hawked during breaks. These are the vestiges of an era during which three major networks competed to be as appealing as possible to the broadest swath of the population.

But with the rise of new forms of media, it has become important to create specialized content for different subsets of its consumers. Viewers have options now, and they exercise them in a competitive environment that constantly forces content creators to innovate and create unique products for their customers.

The human attention span has decreased because we now have more and better choices for entertainment, so we are less willing to spend time consuming a poor product. When headlines claim that humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish, consider if that’s really a bad thing. A goldfish sits in a glass bowl, doing nothing until it dies. It will have lower standards for what can keep its attention.

—Lucas Martin, Harvard University, applied mathematics

Spare the Kids

Long attention spans are essential for children. Before their first day of school, children with access to YouTube and other forms of social media have had their brains rewired. Math, science and composition will always be less interesting than online content specifically tailored to these children’s preferences. Social media keeps tweens and teens from experiencing the world in a more meaningful way, and it exposes them to shallow connections in an age with increasing anxiety and depression. Long attention spans brought humanity the work of Einstein and Newton; let’s stop allowing technology to change us and embrace deep thinking.

—Patrick Barry, Georgia Institute of Technology, aerospace engineering

The Intellectual Advantage

We are blissfully unaware of how blessed we are to have the most expansive variety of resources in the history of humankind constantly at our fingertips. Living in the Information Age, we must conform to the reality that enterprising minds prioritize access to high-quality information and, with lower attention spans, can digest this information at increasingly rapid rates. Being able to understand complex ideas in spite of reduced attention spans is producing people with efficient models of comprehension and a skill set built for impromptu problem solving. Ultimately, it is up to individuals whether they want to strengthen this instant information-processing muscle or whether they want to devalue this intellectual advantage for the sake of short-term gratification via the consumption of trendy but pointless content.

—Rayn Khan, University of Minnesota, marketing

Read a Book

TikTok is the most detrimental thing to happen to our attention spans. It’s an endless cycle of bright colors and catchy sounds meant to be consumed faster than our brains can process the content. Why are we always on our phones? Because tech moguls and social-media developers designed a piece of technology so addicting and damaging that we can’t handle concentrating on real life.

We shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves for being easily distracted; developers created this technology to be addictive. But we can resist by making real efforts to slow down our consumption. Reading a book is an easy and simple solution because it forces us to concentrate on the words on the page. There’s nowhere to scroll.

—Maddie Heinz, Macalester College, English and political science

Click here to submit a response to next week’s Future View. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/attention-spans-shortening-tiktok-social-media-gen-z-millenials-reading-education-focus-11667336185

14 comments:

  1. Hebrew Academy of Long Beach (HALB) is accused of covering up for child molester Rabbi Yossi Ungar.

    https://twitter.com/wordpaley/status/1540870090954084353/photo/1

    HALB hired the Morgan Lewis law firm to conduct a phony "investigation" which HALB deadpans is "independent". The firm also reps HALB in a clear conflict of interest and of course is not making any of the findings available to the public or even privately to the victims. Morgan Lewis did not even reach out to the victims to hear their side of the story! HALB meanwhile spread rumors around the 5 Towns that one victim is "crazy".

    https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=r3giqF2bXG97iB2QDmvhsg==&system=prod

    HALB is being sued over this under the NY Child Victim Act.

    https://twitter.com/wordpaley/status/1540870083249070081?s=20&t=JdbDfuz3ZhUlEhGGEMXtPA

    Ungar continued to work for Ohel at their Camp Kaylie even after YU's Rabbi Yosef Blau warned Ohel about him, so Rabbi Blau went public against Ohel & Ungar.

    Ohel CEO David Mandel & his Agudah Fresser handlers were forced to cave only 1 day after Rabbi Blau's unwanted publicizing caused a PR backlash.

    Ungar is a Barkin mechuton.

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  2. Which heimishe fixer, besides Tort Putz Twerski, has this kind of major pull?

    The "Komarno Rebbe", otherwise known as child rapist Burich Lebovits who davened in Munkatch & Burshteen, was niftar on Shabbos. Already the next day by early afternoon on Sunday, July 3rd of the July 4th holiday weekend, the fixers had the NY State Police remove the Lebovits entry from the Sex Offender Registry.

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  3. Vos zogt UOJ?


    *

    The Telshe Cleveland shortstop --- AKA Munkatcher!

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  4. Frankels Shul Felon12:54 PM, November 02, 2022

    The pipsqueak Moshe Margaretten, in his crazed mission to spring all heimishe criminals from jail, has cultivated many powerful connections. He's been very busy the last while. Primarily he's been importing all the possible Taliban terrorists he can into the US from Afghanistan because the lunatic insists they are Aseres Hashvotim, while ignoring that except for the "Bnai Moshe" shnit, the Aseres were totally cut off from the shechina, have no chelek l'oylam Haboh, and currently also want to murder any non-Muslim infidels!

    This week you find Margaretten tagging along with corrupt open toyevanik Congressman Sean Maloney on the campaign trail. The only ones backing Maloney are the Satmar Aronis because he promised them a sach baksheesh, and Margaretten because Maloney intervenes to spring heimishe criminals from jail whenever Margaretten asks. (Skver might also back Maloney after Joe Biden personally called the Rebbe to incentivize him with even more baksheesh).

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  5. Nuch a Halb Tuchess1:07 PM, November 02, 2022

    Yossi Ungar from HALB is not the same spelling Yossi Ungar, nephew of maniac child molester & alter Munkatcher 'Tuna Beigel' Potchi Lipschutz. Lipschutz & nephew were both 'upstanding' members of Frankel's shul for many years. This other Ungar, who is a Philly yeshiva boy, owns the Bnos Yaakov school located inside the Bais Yaakov Boro Park building. Even after Ungar was arrested & convicted for a scam that could have horrifyingly killed 1000s of people, Shmuel Kamenetsky backs his Bnos Yaakov school & covers up for Ungar.

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  6. https://pagesix.com/2022/10/19/anna-faris-alleges-ivan-reitman-sexually-harassed-her-on-set/

    Another menuvol from Komarno is Ivan Reitman, whose parents managed to survive the Nazis there and later escaped with Ivan from the Communists in the 1950s. They went to Canada where they were members of the Modern Orthodox Shaarey Shomayim shul in Toronto that infamously has been the base of several molesters such as choirmaster Harvey Erlich, youth minyan leader Amram Bendahan, Chazan Avichai Zehavi, and (allegedly) Bar Mitzva melamed Mr. Zucker. (They also had the non-molester ponzi schemers, the Kirschner brothers.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prdMsp-o1G0

    After going OTD, Reitman went on to become director of such flicks as Ghostbusters

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  7. וואס וועט זיין מיט די קינדער

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  8. Duvidl Twersky has just announced he's endorsing Korrupt Kathy Hochul & homo Maloney.

    Boy did he & Aron Teitelbum milk the desperate Democrats for everything they've got.

    ReplyDelete
  9. https://pagesix.com/2022/09/30/sacha-gervasi-assaulted-designer-weeks-before-his-baby-was-born-lawsuit/

    Hitchcock director Sacha Gervasi is also a Shaarei Shomayim Toronto boy. This pervert is grandson of the congregation's multi-millionaire macher Jack Kosoy.

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  10. https://static01.nyt.com/images/2009/06/25/nyregion/25buses_xl.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

    Con artist Philly boy Yossi Ungar contriving crocodile tears to influence the Judge into a light sentence

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://theunorthodoxjew.blogspot.com/2007/02/words-of-advice-to-ou-torah-vodaath-and.html?showComment=1202396580000#c8561318873182811216

    http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/02/07/4831981-sun.html

    Fraud victims denied justice
    Swindler free & they're still broke

    By SAM PAZZANO

    Nor she or her father saw justice when serial swindler Tom Kirschner admitted he fleeced them & others for $4 million.

    The 58-yr-old fraud artist then walked out of a Toronto court a free man with time served 660 days jail & 3 years probation.

    His 23 victims were devastated with little or no return on investments in a development scam. Kirschner lured victims with promises of healthy returns in an area ripe for expansion.

    Sharon said the crime inflicted greater pain than any financial loss imaginable.

    "Tom Kirschner had a hand in my father's grave," said Sharon, whose husband once called Kirschner his best friend

    "My father never got to see justice. I couldn't bear to go to court because it would open old wounds. The stress shortened my father's life, wearing on him until he died," said Sharon, whose family incurred the greatest loss.

    "My dad was an 85-yr-old disabled war vet who worked his whole life, sacrificed & ran a pizzeria - then Tom stole $163,000 from my father & his retirement was undermined."

    Kirschner pleaded guilty to 5 counts of fraud but wasn't given a restitution order since he filed for bankruptcy & the prosecution can't seek payment "when there's no expected means of repayment," Det. Rob Thomas said.

    The fraud investigator found Kirschner in 2006 living at the tony Prince Hotel using cash & an alias to evade authorities.

    "Almost all the victims got nothing or marginal return," Thomas said.

    Kirschner presented himself as a high roller & showed up to meetings in a helicopter or luxury vehicle, Thomas said. But the reality is Kirschner lived out of the back seat of the cars, usually paid for by the victims.

    Charming, articulate Kirschner boasted of connections with the Reichmanns & Donald Trump.

    Kirschner claimed to be a financial adviser with expertise & promised his victims - some of whom risked life savings - a healthy return, court heard.

    Sharon & her husband were saddled with $500k debt to a man they treated as family.

    "Tom Kirschner was more than a best friend. He was family. We went on vacations with Tom, celebrated Passover & high holidays together. He joined our synagogue. We trusted him & paid for so many things for him, from golf fees to you name it. It was a huge betrayal. He saddled us with a huge mortgage."

    Rubey, a Toronto widow, had lost her husband of 35 years when she handed over money from the sale of her house and $70,000 in savings.

    She won a judgment for $400,000 & received 10 hectare of land in Keswick in settlement of a lawsuit against Kirschner.

    "He seemed nice & sincere. I fell for it. Kirschner left me destitute. I was independent my whole life & he took it from me," said Rubey, grandmother of 3.

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  12. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/false-dairy-cow-leases-sold-in-13-million-fraud-case/article18156253/

    About 100 Ontario dairy farmers and 50 members of a Toronto synagogue were used as pawns in a $1.3-million investment fraud over a period of five years, police said.

    The fraud squad is still investigating how Value Capital Leasing Ltd. collected $1,329,000 in false dairy cattle leases from its investors even after farmers terminated their contracts with the company.

    Police refused to release the name of the synagogue, but said some of its members continued to invest in dairy cow leases even as Value Capital started forging contracts to keep the business going.

    Edward Kirschner, 53, of Toronto, surrendered to police recently and has been charged with defrauding the public and falsifying books and records.

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  13. https://freebeacon.com/democrats/meet-the-anti-israel-anti-police-la-city-attorney-candidate/

    ReplyDelete
  14. https://midhudsonnews.com/2022/09/22/brooklyn-men-charged-with-applying-for-gun-permits-in-sullivan-county/

    ReplyDelete