--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Oct 31, 2007, at 10:49 AM, curtisdeltablues wrote: > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Angela Mailander > > <mailander111@> wrote: > > > > > > The statement about attention span was a general statement based on > > stats. Statistics predict tendencies in systems---never individuals. > > That Americans have a short attention span is something the rest of > > the world kind of knows about us---my guess is that this has something > > to do with the fact that we watch more TV than anyone else. Kids in > > other countries tend not to have attention deficit disorder to the > > extent our do. But that can't be the only reason.> > > > > There are no such statistics, this is just prejudice and ethno- centric > > snobbery. I have lived in other countries and people's attention > > spans cannot be summed up by country. With your deep knowledge of > > where this leads I am surprised that you would embrace a negative > > stereotype about a certain culture's cognitive abilities. You are > > buying into a perspective that other countries use to take shots at > > the US. "Well they may be the richest country in the world but they > > have short attention spans." > > > I actually had heard this, it was about 10-15 years ago from > professionals in that field. In fact, one of the theories as to why > they were so high in America was partially genetic, as the tendency > to want to leave another country (i.e. Europe) to go to another > country may stem from ADHD -- so that people who settled here have a > higher percentage of attention deficit via the type of people who > tend to want to move to a young, wild country. In any event, that > what was being bandied about back then. So basically the early > settlers here included a high percentage of ADHD people and we now > pay the genetic price for that today. > > But it was just a theory.
Benjamin Creme mentions something like that in describing the Rays of the USA. But for him it is a posivtive tendency of exploration now being materialized in the american dream of exploring more and more of the universe finding new "frontiers". http://www.shareintl.org
