It would not be an overstatement to say that we live in an age of the diminishing attention span — thanks largely to our digitised lifestyles. Research has validated this viewpoint over and over in the last decade. Distraction, as a daily indiscipline, has a debilitating effect on all areas of achievement and particularly in tasks such as driving, which is a recurrent predicament on Dubai roads. The compulsive use of technology while driving such as texting, talking, taking selfies, checking facebook status or replying to messages simply reiterate an old, unfortunate truth — that evolution has made no significant difference to the human ability to multitask successfully, no matter popular self-delusions.
With regard to driving, which is in itself a full-attention brain function, burdening it with more challenges and hoping to succeed is a foolish and dangerous ambition and there are numbers to prove it. Last year, Dubai Police recorded 59,891 cases of people using phones while driving. In 2015, there were 49,643 instances, in 2014, 45,499 offences and in 2013, 35,734 cases logged. The problem, evidently, is getting worse. And this is because not many of us care to understand how the science of cognition works during task performance.
When it comes to driving, the brain uses 85 per cent of its cognitive load to attend to the function, research reveals. And given that most cars today drive themselves, what is the brain really doing? Making sure its owner remains safe.
So the next time you feel like texting or taking a selfie while driving and in the process taxing your brain further, you would do well to remember this. In fact, you could say your life depends on it.
