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Are we an ADHD-driven society? We’ve got MTV, action movies, You-Tube, Blogs, texting, in other words we’re doing everything at once and doing it in small doses. But, that’s using ADHD as a figure of speech. ADHD is not just having a short attention span, it’s actually an inability to learn the same way other, “normal” people do. We don’t do well in traditional note-taking classes, but we excel in problem-solving in different ways, anything that is broken down to small, attainable goal, and even certain tasks that require us to have several schemata at once.
We’re seeing a lot of diagnoses of ADD. Part of that is that doctors get better a recognizing the symptoms, but, part of it is also that we’re seeing drugs and hormones in what we eat, and, above all that, we’re more likely to see false positives than before. It’s really dicey when you’re diagnosing someone’s brain. You can tell if an arm is broken just by x-raying it. The brain is a little different.
Thom Hartmann came up with a theory called the “Hunter/Farmer Theory.” In simple terms, there are certain personality traits that make you a good hunter: being able to think quickly, being able to hear things and react quickly, the ability to plan several steps ahead depending on changing situations. This is contrasted with the abilities that make a good farmer: patience to do the same thing over and over again every day, ability to learn by hearing something only once, and the ability to focus on one thing at a time. As we became more of an agricultural society, and later an industrialized society, the farmer traits became more prevalent, while the hunter traits were still left in our DNA mix.
Hartmann’s theory was originally meant as a “mental model,” or shorthand way of understanding the concept, but it turns out that genetic scientists back up his claim.
According to Robert Moyzis, professor of biological chemistry at University of California, Irvine:
“Our data show that the creation of the 7R allele was an unusual, spontaneous mutation, which became an advantage for humans. Because it was an advantage, the gene became increasingly prevalent. This is very different from other genes that predispose to genetic disorders, where the mutations are detrimental. We believe this helps explain why a disorder with such a strong genetic association is so common today.”
I believe that video games specifically appeal to this part of our brain, and that’s why they are so popular today, particularly among young and adolescent boys. Most popular video games follow the pattern of puzzle solving while under pressure. For example: Donkey Kong (jump over barrels in a construction site); Pacman (escape from ghosts while trapped in a maze); Zelda (find the dungeon, solve a puzzle to find the boss, find the boss’s weakness), Super Mario Bros. (jump on the enemies before they kill you) and even Grand Theft Auto (solve the puzzle, kill someone).
Every generation endeavors to define itself. We may be a generation that is hyperactive, short attention span, overscheduled, cybernetic, and stuck in a state of suspended adolescence…but our DNA may give us some optimism that even though we’re different, we can accomplish even more than the generations before us.
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
troublsome
I agree with you. We are the generation that is veryy hyperactive, have super short attention spans, definitely overscheduled, cybernetic, and without a doubt stuck in a state of suspended adolescence.
I will be the first to tell anone, that I have ADD. And quite honestly I have never been diagnosed with it, but I know for sure that I have it. It may not be the most severe case in the world, but it’s there. See back when I went to school, It wasn’t common for kids to be tested with these disorders. Therefore it was something that was more of a behavioral issue and dealt with that way, and not so much focusing on the title “A.D.D” I think when you don’t know something it could sometimes be better.
What I mean by that is this: If you see the number of blacks kids that are diagnosed with these learning disabilities, the statistics are crazy. That’s becasue every time a little kid in the hood or anywhere else has behavior issues, the first thing they do is test them for ADD. And quite honestly I think If every kid was tested in the world, they could find something wrong with them. I think that there are other things that are the determinant factors to a child’s behavior like: the stability of the home, single family household, your community, and your diet.
What I have come to realize is there are several things that have abled be to control my attention issues. I have basically demonstrated therapy on myself my whole life without really knowing it. Had I ever been diagnosed, things may be a little different..
[Reply]
Malia reply on May 8, 2008 8:00 am:
TROUBLSOME——You said that perfectly! I have taken care of a “special needs” child his entire life, and it has made me very tolerant and patient to the differences in children’s individual needs. I think it’s unfair to teach all children basede on a standardized curriculum and method. That is such a barbaric learning system! Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder are not dumb or stupid by a long shot! Like you, for example, are highly intelligent with the ADD and all. In fact, I think some people with ADD make it work to their advantage and become very successful. They simply learn in different and unique ways. But they too must find patient and willing teachers who understand their challenges. ADD students learn differently because their brains operate on different frequencies. They don’t respond well to the regimented approaches typically used. It’s all in the perception….
I also agree with both you and A MOM that a few thousand more black kids instantly fall into the definition of ADD without even being diagnosed. ADD has grown from a malady known only to a few cognitive researchers and special educators into a national phenomenon. I’m troubled by the speed with which both the public and the professional community have embraced ADD instead of looking at the bigger issues such as stability of the home, single family household, community/environment, and dietary issue that you spoke to above.
[Reply]
"A Mom"
I think it is something people use when they can’t handle young kids especially young black boys.
A counselor told me that my son had ADD. My son was in the gate program and he got all A’s and B’s. He finished his school work long before the other children. He had great ability to learn anything but got bored quickly. he play trumpet, baseball, basketball, soccer. So they labeled him ADD. Give me a brake!
[Reply]
Malia reply on May 8, 2008 8:08 am:
I feel you girl. When my son was 9 he was really into art and he possessed great vitality and energy, he was always so helpful finding recycled materials that could be used by teachers in developing arts programs, in the context of this arts organization, my son was a definite asset.
A few months after this experience, he had a new teacher that didn’t emphasize the arts but more of the same old boring out-dated curriculum. My son became a real problem in this classroom. He couldn’t stay in his seat, wandered around the room, talked out of turn, and basically made the teacher’s life miserable. He seemed like a fish out of water and he appeared to fit the definition of a child with attention deficit disorder (ADD). When they met with me and told me these things I immediately yanked him out of that teacher’s classroom and all of the “symptoms” disappeared! It wasn’t my son who had the problem; he was bored out of his mind!!!!
[Reply]
TROUBLdMami reply on May 9, 2008 7:56 pm:
It is sad that this day in age, a hyperactive mind is considered a problem. When in all reality, as Malia stated kids are more progressive/smarter than we as adults even give them props for. Why does the first thing that comes to mind is that there must be something wrong? ADD is just another western hemisphere medical diagnosis to put more youth on ritalin, or whatever other drug that a doctor would prescribe, instead of finding more productive ways to deal with these so called symptoms. Its like we give up before we even figure out whats really going on. So who is failing these children? I believe its the parents and teachers alike…
[Reply]
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