( CNN ) -- During a recent commencement address at Hampton University in Virginia , Barack Obama described the way today 's internet-powered media environment `` bombards us with all kinds of content . '' He warned students that iPads , Xboxes , and other popular digital gadgets can turn information into `` a distraction , a diversion , a form of entertainment '' rather than a means `` of empowerment . '' As soon as the president 's remarks were made public , knees began jerking throughout the blogosphere . One online pundit said that Obama sounded `` like a grumpy old man . '' Another suggested that in criticizing technology he was acting like an `` old fogy . '' Even the normally restrained Economist magazine rushed out an editorial accusing Obama of `` technophobia '' and `` Luddism . '' By the reaction , you would have thought our BlackBerry-toting president had called for a return to horse-drawn carriages , outhouses , and whalebone corsets . Instead of drawing ridicule , Obama 's words should have drawn our attention -- and our concern . Over the past decade , most of us have been dramatically ratcheting up the time we spend surfing the web , exchanging electronic messages , and hanging out in social networks like Facebook and MySpace . At the same time , we 've been showering our kids with laptops , iPods , PlayStations and smartphones . The average American today spends more than eight hours a day peering into a screen -- TV , computer , or cell phone -- and the average teen sends or receives well over 2,000 text messages a month . But even as we 've been enjoying the seemingly endless bounties of the net , neurobiologists and psychologists have been carrying out studies which suggest that the way we gather information online impedes comprehension , weakens understanding , and in general hinders learning . Worse yet , the ill effects of heavy web use appear to continue to afflict us even when we turn our computers off . The cognitive penalties can be particularly severe for students . In one revealing experiment , researchers at Cornell University divided a class into two groups . One group was allowed to use their laptop computers to surf the web during a lecture . The other group attended the same lecture but had to keep their computers closed . Immediately afterward , the students took a test measuring how well they remembered the lecture 's content . The students who used their laptops performed significantly worse on the exam . It did n't matter , moreover , whether they surfed sites related to the subject of the lecture or unrelated sites . All the surfers performed relatively poorly . Other researchers have found that students who read text with hyperlinks , as you routinely find online , end up with a weaker understanding of the material than students who read the same text in a traditional , linear format , as you 'd find in a printed book . Each link appears to act as a little distraction , breaking the reader 's concentration . As the number of links mounts , comprehension diminishes further . The multitude of messages and other bits of information that the Web fires at us , from emails to tweets to Facebook updates , have also been found to interrupt our thoughts in a way that impedes the formation of memories and the building of knowledge . The more information we juggle , the less able we are to make sense of it all . Last year , a team of Stanford researchers reported that heavy media multitaskers have trouble concentrating even when they 're not online . They 're considerably less able , for example , to distinguish important information from trivial information than are people who engage in multitasking less frequently . `` Everything distracts them , '' one of the researchers said of the heavy multitaskers . Patricia Greenfield , a leading developmental psychologist who teaches at UCLA , warned in a 2009 Science article that a growing body of scientific evidence indicates that spending a lot of time with computers , smartphones , and other such devices weakens people 's ability to think deeply , critically , and creatively . As we rush around the web gathering little pieces of information , we seem to be training our brains to be quick but superficial . Only a curmudgeon would deny the many benefits that our computers and electronic networks have brought us . The internet and related technologies have made it much easier to stay in touch with friends and family members , to discover interesting and useful information , to express ourselves , and to collaborate with others . Since the World Wide Web was invented two decades ago , we have been celebrating these benefits -- and rightly so . But we 've been paying much less attention to the negative consequences of our online lives . The time has come for us to take a more balanced view of the net , looking at its costs as well as its benefits . That 's particularly true when it comes to educating our children . Sticking a kid in front of a computer screen is probably not the best way encourage the development of a strong , creative , and supple mind . As President Obama implied , information should be a source not of distraction but of enlightenment . As important as it is to be able to find lots of information quickly , what 's even more important is to be able to think deeply about the information once we 've found it . We need to slow down .
Author says we should pay attention to Wikipedia 's article on Internet media overload . Average American today spends more than eight hours a day peering into a screen . Ill effects of heavy technology seem to continue to plague us even after computers are off .