Strategically Communicating

The current issue of Outside magazine (December, 2012) contains an article that mirrors our discussion of the book, The Shallows. Here’s just a few statistics that the magazine cites from a years-long study by the Boston Consulting Group. Fifty-one percent of participants say they check e-mail obsessively while on vacation. Twenty-six percent sleep with their smartphones within reach (I do as it’s my alarm clock).

Such nonstop engagement changes how the brain processes information, says Outside, and in some cases changes the brain itself. So it’s no wonder that Outside magazine, when they asked the director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, what the cure is, got the answer back that, “An expanding literature suggests that exposure to nature – either a walk through a park or looking at nature photographs – can enhance attention and memory.”

So put down those smartphones, unplug that computer and hide that IPad.

Question: Can UofO grad students get outside during the Thanksgiving break without an Ipod and enjoy a bit of nature on its own quiet terms? My guess is yes.