OmniscientOnus
Blue Mage
Ok, so in the last couple of years we have been seeing all kinds of new disorders and diseases coming into fruition from the medical and psychological devisions. I want to look specifically at two of them. Attention Deficit Disorder (AKA: ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (AKA: ADHD).
For sake of ease, let me loosely define them for anyone who is unsure. ADD is essentially the inability to stay focused on any particular issue for any reasonable length of time. ADHD is the same thing, only not only can you not stay focused, but you also have difficulty staying calm. If you want the full definition I suggest searching a government sponsored medical organization's website.
Now, in the last decade or so, psychologists have created two new terms for what they believe are psychological disorders. Basically, this means that these are not new disorders that have come about, but are simply newly recognized, and named. These terms are, of course, ADD and ADHD.
What I'd like to debate on is whether or not you believe that these are real disorders, or whether they are just a way to make a prophet. A disorder, remember, is something out of the norm. The majority of the population can not have a disorder. In order to be "out of the ordinary" less than 50% of the given population must be infected. With that being said, here's my take:
I'll start with ADD because it was the first to be "recognized" as being a psychological disorder.
ADD is nothing more than a way to make money. It may have started out as a real issue, but it has turned into such a problem, that all kinds of kids are being diagnosed with it. I believe that a group of psychologists basically got together and said, "What is wrong with these kids today?", and went from there. Through studies they found that many children (especially those entering adolescence) had difficulty focusing on any given task for more than a few minutes (approximately 11 minutes to be precise). Through even more research they discovered that this inability to stay focused was the reason these kids were failing in school, having difficulty learning, and sometimes even misbehaving. So, they slapped on the label "ADD" and laughed all the way to the ritalin funded bank. Here is why I believe that this disorder is a farce.
How long is the average television show? Approximately 22 minutes (the other 8 being for commercials). These 22 minutes are usually broken up into 2 to 4 different segments leaving each segment approximately 5.5 to 11 minutes long. Convenient that this is also the approximate attention span of children with this disorder, is it not?
How many hours does the average young adolescent spend watching television each day? According to the AACAP it's 3-4 hours a day. So, what we are really saying is that for approximately 3-4 hours a day children are only forced to stay focused for 5.5 to 11 minutes at a time in order to fully attain the knowledge needed to comprehend the activity at hand.
Next we'll cover school. Grade school has two factors that add to this issue. One is that each class is approximately 45 minutes to an hour long. The second is how a lot of teachers set up their classrooms. In the most organized classrooms you can find (which are few and far between these days), with the best teachers, you will often find that any lectures that take place are typically broken up into 15 minute long segments, and for a reason. The reason is simple, in any given period of our life, unless we are covering something that really catches our attention, we only really remember the first 15 minutes, and last 15 minutes, of the event at hand. This is not to say that we do not comprehend, or even recollect, any other portion of any activity, it is just saying that our most cognitive times are the first 15 minutes, and the last 15 minutes. Therefore, a good teacher will break up his lecture at approximately 15 minute intervals in order to keep the mind constantly on the topic at hand. This means that even in the best, most organized classroom, children will typically only need to prolong their attention span to 15 minutes. Not much better than TV.
Finally we move on the the last largest contributer: the internet. Yes, my friends, the internet is a glorious tool which places the vast knowledge of man at your fingertips; but let's face it, you spend more time surfing porn then Plato, don't you?
Children especially fall into the "myspace", "facebook", and "livejournal" traps of the internet, and their not exactly using it intelligently like our good buddy kyle (South Park reference). Kids aren't using these sites to broaden their horizons, their using them to hook up, show off, post useless surveys and questions. I bet most kids spend more time unknowingly pleasuring pedophiles than they do waxing ironic with intellectuals on myspace, AIM, or even MSN. What I'm getting at is that the internet is just another tool that adds to the amount of time any given child spends living their life 11 minutes at a time.
As far as ADHD goes, well, if you're spending all day at school, watching television, and surfing the internet, the only real exercise you're getting is a few quality moments with your good hand. And frankly, the human body needs to move in order to function properly. Not only will inactivity cause you to be fat, but it actually slows down the rest of your body's abilities as well.
So, if all of these things contribute to short attention spans, and hyperactivity, how can I claim that they are a farce? Simple. The majority of children, adolescents, and (slowly but surely) even adults, now suffer from this "disorder", and it can't be a disorder if it infects the majority. But more of what I'm really getting at here is that this is not something that should be cured with medication.
This is something that needs to be cured with books with more chapters than pictures; with television that's more exotic than erotic; with movies that provide more stimulation than they cause; not with pills or prescriptions.
In conclusion the diagnosis of "ADD" or "ADHD" are nothing more than a diagnosis of "human".
For sake of ease, let me loosely define them for anyone who is unsure. ADD is essentially the inability to stay focused on any particular issue for any reasonable length of time. ADHD is the same thing, only not only can you not stay focused, but you also have difficulty staying calm. If you want the full definition I suggest searching a government sponsored medical organization's website.
Now, in the last decade or so, psychologists have created two new terms for what they believe are psychological disorders. Basically, this means that these are not new disorders that have come about, but are simply newly recognized, and named. These terms are, of course, ADD and ADHD.
What I'd like to debate on is whether or not you believe that these are real disorders, or whether they are just a way to make a prophet. A disorder, remember, is something out of the norm. The majority of the population can not have a disorder. In order to be "out of the ordinary" less than 50% of the given population must be infected. With that being said, here's my take:
I'll start with ADD because it was the first to be "recognized" as being a psychological disorder.
ADD is nothing more than a way to make money. It may have started out as a real issue, but it has turned into such a problem, that all kinds of kids are being diagnosed with it. I believe that a group of psychologists basically got together and said, "What is wrong with these kids today?", and went from there. Through studies they found that many children (especially those entering adolescence) had difficulty focusing on any given task for more than a few minutes (approximately 11 minutes to be precise). Through even more research they discovered that this inability to stay focused was the reason these kids were failing in school, having difficulty learning, and sometimes even misbehaving. So, they slapped on the label "ADD" and laughed all the way to the ritalin funded bank. Here is why I believe that this disorder is a farce.
How long is the average television show? Approximately 22 minutes (the other 8 being for commercials). These 22 minutes are usually broken up into 2 to 4 different segments leaving each segment approximately 5.5 to 11 minutes long. Convenient that this is also the approximate attention span of children with this disorder, is it not?
How many hours does the average young adolescent spend watching television each day? According to the AACAP it's 3-4 hours a day. So, what we are really saying is that for approximately 3-4 hours a day children are only forced to stay focused for 5.5 to 11 minutes at a time in order to fully attain the knowledge needed to comprehend the activity at hand.
Next we'll cover school. Grade school has two factors that add to this issue. One is that each class is approximately 45 minutes to an hour long. The second is how a lot of teachers set up their classrooms. In the most organized classrooms you can find (which are few and far between these days), with the best teachers, you will often find that any lectures that take place are typically broken up into 15 minute long segments, and for a reason. The reason is simple, in any given period of our life, unless we are covering something that really catches our attention, we only really remember the first 15 minutes, and last 15 minutes, of the event at hand. This is not to say that we do not comprehend, or even recollect, any other portion of any activity, it is just saying that our most cognitive times are the first 15 minutes, and the last 15 minutes. Therefore, a good teacher will break up his lecture at approximately 15 minute intervals in order to keep the mind constantly on the topic at hand. This means that even in the best, most organized classroom, children will typically only need to prolong their attention span to 15 minutes. Not much better than TV.
Finally we move on the the last largest contributer: the internet. Yes, my friends, the internet is a glorious tool which places the vast knowledge of man at your fingertips; but let's face it, you spend more time surfing porn then Plato, don't you?
Children especially fall into the "myspace", "facebook", and "livejournal" traps of the internet, and their not exactly using it intelligently like our good buddy kyle (South Park reference). Kids aren't using these sites to broaden their horizons, their using them to hook up, show off, post useless surveys and questions. I bet most kids spend more time unknowingly pleasuring pedophiles than they do waxing ironic with intellectuals on myspace, AIM, or even MSN. What I'm getting at is that the internet is just another tool that adds to the amount of time any given child spends living their life 11 minutes at a time.
As far as ADHD goes, well, if you're spending all day at school, watching television, and surfing the internet, the only real exercise you're getting is a few quality moments with your good hand. And frankly, the human body needs to move in order to function properly. Not only will inactivity cause you to be fat, but it actually slows down the rest of your body's abilities as well.
So, if all of these things contribute to short attention spans, and hyperactivity, how can I claim that they are a farce? Simple. The majority of children, adolescents, and (slowly but surely) even adults, now suffer from this "disorder", and it can't be a disorder if it infects the majority. But more of what I'm really getting at here is that this is not something that should be cured with medication.
This is something that needs to be cured with books with more chapters than pictures; with television that's more exotic than erotic; with movies that provide more stimulation than they cause; not with pills or prescriptions.
In conclusion the diagnosis of "ADD" or "ADHD" are nothing more than a diagnosis of "human".
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