Scrolling All the Way: How Technology affects our Attention

 

Image by Chen Pixabay

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a person in possession of a smartphone must be checking the notifications first thing in the morning. In fact, every day we see ourselves briefly scrolling through the Explore section on Instagram, going through reels after reels, posts after posts, until we choose to get out of the bed.

However, a question remains - how “brief” is this ritual of “briefly” scrolling through social media platforms every day in the morning, or at any given time in the day? What is the nature of the content that we see? Moreover, how do our smartphones have our attention all the time?

But wait…

Before we head into the details, let’s take a deep breath. Inhale as much air as you can. And then exhale it all slowly.

Now, with a clear mind, think about the reasons that drive you to access your phone as soon as you wake up. It might be for:

• The unread messages from your friends

• Checking whether your latest post/reel got a lot of likes

• If your status update was viewed by someone you are interested in

• To go through the sale items at an online store

• To watch a new episode on an OTT platform

                                                                                    …and the list goes on.

We may have more than one reason to check our phone immediately in the morning, but it is the finer nuances that turn normal activities into priorities. What if you were told that these actions would not be affected in any way if you check them after you freshen up and have your breakfast?

Yes, perhaps a product on sale would go out of stock by then, but it is this sense of urgency that often motivates us to check our phone at every moment. And now, this habit (or ritual, rather) is benefiting innumerable businesses and organizations as we speak. Especially if that involves social media.

Social media platforms are quite a funny place. They turn videos into crass visuals, an incident into memes, and repetition a trend. Come on, as soon as a person does a somersault to a funny song and uploads it on Instagram or TikTok, you would drown in a sea of reels made by different people but doing the exact same thing - the same somersault act with the same song playing in the video.

The absence of originality, or even change for that matter, has affected our choices and perceptions in such a manner that the bombardment of the same type of content by hundreds of other creators would still make us laugh. Because we will still see those videos while we have a meal or when we are commuting. We watch because we pay our attention to them. Or rather, we pay with our attention.

But wait. What do we pay for?

Human Attention and Data Algorithms

What we see on social media influences our opinions, beliefs, and (thus) our tendency to stay hooked on the platform for hours while it would seem like a couple of minutes to us. So, in most cases, we pay for entertainment, amusement, or even knowledge on online platforms with our undue attention.

As a matter of fact, our attention span has lowered down significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. As digital consumption reached an all-time high, there was a surge in content generation (not creation, exactly) on social media platforms as well as other websites, all of which had one goal in particular - to gain a lot of viewers for as long as possible.

How can you commodify attention?

In order to understand how Attention is becoming an important global commodity, let’s look at the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). The YPP invites creators to join the platform to boost their businesses to greater heights. In order to be eligible for their monetization policy, the YPP states that your YouTube Channel must have either of the two criteria fulfilled:

Your channel (with long-form videos) must have 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 authentic public watch hours in the last 12 months,

OR

Your channel (short-form videos) must have 1,000 subscribers with 10 million authentic public Shorts views in the last 90 days

For more details regarding the YPP, click here.

As you can see, the number of views that the videos in your channel get is a deciding factor. Although you may have 1k subscribers, what matters is how much the subscribers are looking forward to your content. In short, YouTube implies that the creator must have the audience’s attention at all times. This need for more views had already come into being since 2018, before the pandemic.

In a way, an Attention Economy has come into being, as a byproduct of a world that is neck-deep into information; information that is endless and unchecked. With the inception of the internet, there has always been an undeterred focus on increasing the amount of content that is available. After all, the human mind tends to look for more options to make better judgment.

However, Herbert A. Simon looks at this from a different angle. He says that there is no dearth in the amount of information on the web. Rather, there is a scarcity of attention for the information that is available online. In his work Designing Organizations for an Information-rich World, he writes;

“What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.” (Simon, pp. 37-52)

How does Data demand your attention?

It’s pretty simple. It just reduces the length, structure, and duration of the content. That way, the reader can read or watch the content without the concern of spending “too much time in it”. When, ironically, they are spending the same time, or more, to watch one 30-minute video or a 6-page text.

The Attention Economy, thus, has influenced Marketing and Sales strategies to a great extent. For instance, the SEO mechanism necessitates the use of short sentences. Also short paragraphs, with a certain group of keywords. But the article should make sense. Just like how this article has been written. Into chunks of paragraphs so that we can hold on to you until your attention runs out!

Thus, the new approach to digital consumption is to seek for more attention and find ways to allot it among the excess data available. In other words, as the Explore section on Instagram helps you discover new creators, memes or trends regularly, the algorithm bombards you with the same somersault video being made by other 638 creators. That way, the trend would keep on going until another “quirky” video (within a week or less) pops up and eventually becomes another new trend.

Rationing your Attention

Yes, you read it right. As our senses and minds are being overwhelmed by the overabundance of content on the web - textual or visual, premium or free -, it is high time that we took control over the quantity and quality of content that we should expose ourselves to. And certainly, you can bring in small changes in your daily routine and habits that would eventually culminate into a greater change in your online activities.

Some of the recommended ways to ration your attention for the sake of your mental and emotional well-being are:

• Set up app timers that would block your apps as soon as you spend the specified duration of time on a particular day. Apps like Digital Wellbeing allow you to regulate your screen time on certain apps - social media, shopping, gaming, etc.

• Using productivity apps like Forest is a healthy way to mitigate the amount of time you spend on your phone. You can set a timer of an hour or so on the Forest app, and choose to do a chore, read a book, or do something to amuse yourself. After all, you can’t use your phone until the timer on the Forest app comes to an end!

• Yoga and Meditation. Yes, the same suggestion over and over again when it comes to health and wellness. But it is true that meditation is beneficial for your mind and body. So, maybe spare some time in yoga instead of YouTube when you wake up in the morning?

• Develop your weekly routine so that it can accommodate a couple of hours at night for social detox. Well, it is best to stay away from gadgets a couple of hours before you go to bed. Also, social detox is one of the best ways to work on your digital consumption. So, good sleep and good health, guaranteed.

The longer the views, the better the returns. And by returns, it simply means recognition, popularity, and finances for certain. After all, special award ceremonies hosted by social media platforms would not have happened if Attention was never commodified by businesses.

With each passing day, as new trends and newer gadgets enter the market, we find our attention span decreasing at an alarming rate. Likewise, our interests too are changing at the same pace. As we jump from one trend to the other, our minds are barely given enough space to process and defuse the sheer stress of information overload that has not become the new normal.

Being spammed with 15-20 odd notifications at an hourly rate not only delivers priority notifications but also bombards us with information that is unnecessary. This excess of information that we receive to us via news alerts or WhatsApp forwards is actually cluttering our brains with data that is not really required in the long run. Thus, the need to ration your attention is quite crucial for the well-being of your intellect and emotional quotient. Be it productivity or leisure, one must prioritize the kinds of content that you want to expose yourself to, so that your mind can get a breather to process information that is necessary.

Hence, in a world that seeks to rise in views and likes over quality and originality, let’s take a moment to ponder over how the content affects you. Does it actually leave a good impression on you, or do you laugh at the meme because many people find it “relatable”? Do you actually want the shirt you see online, or is it for the good reviews it has received from past customers?

After all, manipulation is an age-old technique of entrapment. Thus, it is better to think about what you actually like, than go with what the herd wants.

Citations:

• Simon, Herbert A (1971). Designing Organizations for an Information-rich World. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 37–52. 

Blog collaborator: Apurba Ganguly (she/her) is an English literature student, pursuing B.Ed (English). She has been eager to understand the intricacies of Memory Studies and Visual Narratives. 

Can I Learn CREATIVITY?

 

Image credit: 愚木混株 Cdd20 Pixabay

Do you know which is the most viewed TED Talk? My guess is that many of you know this. For those who are unaware, it’s Sir Ken Robinson’s 2006 talk, “Do School Kill Creativity?” with almost 75 million views and counting on YouTube. (source statista.com)

This metric may be an indicator of the enormous interest people have in the topic of Creativity. But, Why are people so interested in Creativity? In my opinion, the reasons could be:

Intrigue - We are intrigued by the concept of creativity (many of us have a narrow understanding of it)

Regret - Sadly, most of us lost our creativity and imagination while growing up (schooling, eh!)

I Wish - We all wish we were more creative! (sounds familiar?)

Awe - We all admire and hold creative people in awe! (be it Messi’s pass to Julian Alvarez in the World Cup semifinal against Croatia, or AR Rahman’s music composition for the film Roja, or Jeethu Joseph’s screenplay and direction of Mohan Lal’s Drishyam, or even Yuval Noah Harari’s way of thinking and writing that is evident in Sapiens).

If we are asked the question What is Creativity?, we might have different versions of our understanding of it. Many may view Creativity as an artistic ability, while others may view it as a way of thinking. Some may view it as an attribute or manifestation of artists. So, let’s get into the definition of Creativity from two perspectives: one from the English Dictionary and the other from the APA (American Psychological Association) Dictionary of Psychology.

Creativity is the ability to produce original and unusual ideas, or to make something new or imaginative. – Cambridge Dictionary

Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method, or device, or a new artistic object or form. – Britannica

Creativity is the ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts. A creative individual typically displays originality, imagination, and expensiveness. Creative thinking refers to the mental processes leading to a new invention or solution to a problem. Products of creative thinking include new machines, social ideas, scientific theories, artistic works and more. – APA Dictionary of Psychology.

The common keywords that appear in these definitions are – "Original", "Unusual", "New", "Imagination" and "Solutions to a problem".

Another important theme which arises from these definitions is: Creativity is Field Agnostic. As it is a way of thinking and coming up with original ideas, a creative person can belong to any field – be it Art, Business, Science or Sports.

Image credit: Manfred Steger Pixabay

Changing gears from definition, let’s turn our focus towards any child around you, or you can reflect back to the time when you were a child yourself. Do you see Imaginative Play? Do you see Abundant Possibilities? Do you hear “I want to become an Astronaut", "I want to be a bus-driver"? 😊 But what happened to us, now when we are adults? Long serious faces, too practical, realistic and conservative in the way we think. Somewhere during the journey of growing up, our Creativity got lost in the way.

As Sir Ken Robinson provocatively suggests in his TED Talk, did a standardized, formal schooling/training and expectations of a way of life from our significant adults made us trade iff Creativity with becoming straight-jacketed herds, robot-like individuals who are part of the crowd, a cog in the wheel without any stand-out attributes? Food for thought for all of us (rather a buffet of thoughts).

We changed gears above and rammed into gloominess. What do we do now? Put our cars in neutral gear, put the hands on the brake and stay put with not being creative for the rest of our adult life.

Or is there a creative solution to come out of this gloominess and step into a brighter weather? Hmm… maybe, How about (re)-learning Creativity?

Image credit: Lionness of Africa website

Contrary to the popular belief that 'creativity is innate and cannot be learned’, Dr Tina Seelig, Professor of Practice in the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E) at Stanford University says, “Creativity can’t be learned is a myth”. She says the truth is that everyone has creativity, and enhancing it only takes a bit of time and practice.

Dr Tina Seelig has made understanding Creativity and teaching it her life’s mission. She started off her research as a Neurophysiologist, then moving to the world of business and to Stanford to teach Creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation.

In her book, inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity (Harper Collins 2012), she points out that we look at creativity in a much too narrow way and must look at it in a new light.

She uses an “Innovation Engine” model to explain how she thinks creativity works.

Image credit: Dr Tina Seelig

The Innovation Engine has two parts:

The Inside is You (internal) - Knowledge, Imagination and Attitude.

The Outside is the External World – Resources, Culture and Habitat.

Let’s do a dip-stick in each of these six concepts:

1. Imagination:

 Most people start thinking about Creativity with Imagination. However, one of the sad thing is we don’t really teach people how to increase imagination in school.

For example, in kindergarten, a Maths problem is framed as 5+5 = ?. The answer is 10 and it’s the only one correct answer. Can we ask the question differently to generate more than one answer and unleash imagination? What if we asked children what two numbers add up to 10. ? + ? = 10. All of a sudden now, there is now infinite possible correct answers.

Therefore, Rethinking or Reframing the Question, leads to interesting answers. As a matter of fact, the Copernican Revolution, that redefined the model of the Solar System with the Sun in the center instead of the Earth, began with reframing the questions - What if the Sun was in the center?

Indulging oneself in Humour are fun ways of learning how to frame questions differently. After all, humor works only when the semantics unexpectedly switch in the middle of the joke. So, indulge in humor everyday to increase your imagination.

The second method to develop one's imagination is by the practice of Connecting and Combining unrelated ideas. She gives an example of Chindogu (a Japanese Art), in which the inventors create un-useless inventions. "Un-useless items" are objects that are neither useful nor useless at the same time. Chindogu is a fun way to improve your imaginative skills

The third method for developing your imagination is by Challenging Assumptions, via getting breakthrough ideas. By staying in the current set of assumptions, one limits themselves and turn a blind eye to other existing possibilities/opportunities.

 

2. Knowledge:

Knowledge is the toolbox for your imagination.

Think about it; in today’s world, revolutionary ideas and breakthroughs are happening by combining the knowledge of different domains, into one integrated interface. Examples include Biomedical Engineering, Behavioural Economics etc.

Apart from the formal way of gaining knowledge (schools and books), one should pay attention to the real-world events that occur in their day-to-day life.

By not paying enough attention and by going through each phase of life as it is, one misses out on various opportunities for solving a problem as well as the solutions that are lying in front of them, waiting to be discovered.

Dr Seelig advocates a method of revisiting the places which we frequent on a routine basis and consciously pay attention to the surroundings. Take in new perceptions, new perspectives, use the mind-mapping method (draw/make notes) of the observations you make in your surroundings.       

3. Attitude:

Attitude is the motivation, mindset and drive for solving the problems. Unless one has the right attitude and spark alive, they will not be able to go after these problems and solve them.

Dr Seelig opines, most people unfortunately have the attitude of ‘Puzzle Solver’. The problem with this mindset is, if one or two pieces of the puzzle set is missing, they are literally stuck and this lose the motivation to complete the puzzle.

So she recommends developing the attitude of the ‘Quilt Maker’, because a quilt maker will make use of any available resources to complete their goal (quilt). The attitude of the Quilt Maker makes for a true innovator and entrepreneur.  

4. Habitat:

Habitat is the environment around you, which influences one’s creativity. It includes the people we work with, the rules, rewards, constraints, as well as incentives, among others.

Dr Seelig makes special emphasis on the physical space and draws our attention to the idea of the kindergarten for children. She points out that the kindergarten’s physical space is vibrant, bright, colorful and hence stimulating to the child’s playful, creative nature. Fast-forward it to university classrooms and office cubicles, and the contrast becomes quite apparent. From the vibrant, colorful kindergarten habitat to the monochromatic, cramped-up classrooms and office spaces is so obvious. And ironically,, we wear t-shirts with doodles of the phrase "Think Out of the Box" while we work monotonously in the same cubicle).

One way of looking at the physical space is by perceiving it as a stage on which we have to enact the various phases of our life. A physical space which is playful fosters one’s imagination and creativity. No wonder why innovative companies like Google and Pixar have one thing in common – a playful physical space (i.e. the office environment).

5. Resources:

Dr Seelig points out, most people restrain their thinking by equating resources with only money. The idea here is to broaden our aperture and look at resources which encompass not only money, but also people, skills, natural resources and culture.

At the end of the day, it always boils down to how we can make sense of the resources we currently have as opposed to the resources we don’t have.

6. Culture:

“Culture is the background music of any community, of any organization, of every team and of every family.” – Dr Tina Seelig.

A culture that supports an imaginative, multidisciplinary approach, which allows mistakes to be made, which encourages experimentation, which encourages challenging the established norms, eventually ignites creativity. Creativity, therefore, can thrive only when the culture is conducive enough for an individual to question, react and respond to the different phenomena that exists around and within us.  

If we look at the Innovation Engine model closely, we would see that it is a Mobius Strip.

This depicts, none of these 6 factors can be looked at in isolation. The Inside (You) and the External (Outside World) is woven together.

Imagination and Habitat are parallel to each other. The Habitat we build is the manifestation of our imagination. After all, our Habitat is capable of creating an impact on our imagination.

Knowledge and Resources are parallel to each other. Knowledge unlocks the resources; the more we know, the more resources we can unlock. In turn, the more resources we unlock, the more knowledge we produce.

Culture and Attitude are parallel to each other. Culture is the collective attitude of the community. Also, the culture shapes our attitude.

The Mobius Strip model also enables us to start our creativity journey from anywhere in these 6 elements. As an individual, one can start with developing knowledge or one can start with building an attitude etc.

Most importantly, everyone has the key to their Innovation Engine. It is upon us to put the key in, start our Innovation Engine and rekindle our dormant Creativity!

You can watch Dr Tina Seelig’s TEDx Talk on Creativity @ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyM6rx69iqg 

Link to Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on Does School Kill Creativity? on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY 

For detailed reading you can look up for Dr Tina Seelig’s book inGenius – A Crash Course on Creativity. 

Need for Integrating Life Skills in Academics

Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash

From my lived experiences, I can strongly vouch that there is more to school education than studying for unit tests, preparing for board exams, and seeking admission at premier institutes. After all, an individual’s school life is a major phase of their lifetime, isn’t it? While knowledge acquisition is often prioritised, the need to develop a student to face practical situations in one’s life is disregarded. Moreover, the homogeneity that prevails in the faculty’s (and in turn the school’s) manner of assessing students, without acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each individual, eventually results in a generalized attempt at personality development of these students through extracurricular activities.

This inability of an educational institution to conduct individual assessments as well as counseling sessions of students usually results in the latter’s lack of awareness about their own selves, their interests, their potentials, what they are good at, and so on. Thus, it is undoubtedly imperative to give primacy to the study of Life Skills at school, a subject (or a discipline, rather) that is often administered incorrectly by the school authorities and thus fail to address the final problem - the absence of practicality in education.

What are Life Skills?

The term “Life Skills” can be defined as an academic field which is not exactly academic in nature but does contribute significantly to the process of personality development within a child. Basically, the inclusion of Life Skills in the school curriculum helps students to identify, analyze and resolve practical problems in the real world. In other words, Life Skills often serve as a bridge that facilitates the interdisciplinary association of daily life activities with that of school education.

Speaking from my own experience and by comparing the inter-generational upbringing (that is, how I grew up in the 80's-90’s, and how my son is growing up now), I strongly feel that we naturally imbibed life skills as part of our growing-up process. We played on the streets, we made friends with kids across the socio-economic strata because we didn’t live in homogenized-gated communities; our schools were humbler, transportation to schools was either walking or travelling in public transport and getting scolding (also, occasional beating) from teachers was the norm.

We have robbed today’s school-going generation from these simple pleasures and experiences of life by over-protecting them, limiting their exposure within the posh-gated communities, and today’s school management and teachers will conduct themselves with the do’s and don’ts protocol.

Hence, I am a big proponent of the need for Life Skills as part of formal education, to equip the students to face the real world outside their comfort zone of the school campus and the home environment as well.

Life Skills in the School Curriculum

Life Skills as a field consists of 5 types, each of which focus on a different aspect of an individual’s personality development. These 5 sub-skills are not only beneficial to individuals as students, but also help them immensely in their adulthood, while making career choices as well as taking their own responsibilities as independent individuals. At the end, the very purpose of Life Skills is to provide the requisite practical knowledge to students so that they can take their decisions wisely;

• Academic and Research Skills

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Yes, most schools fail to inculcate the required academic and research skills among students to help them study with a holistic approach. Oftentimes, covering lessons becomes tedious for students, which results in rote learning, plagiarism, or cheating. While the choices of favourite subject(s) would influence the study method for each student, it is important that they are able to learn first. In short, a school should help students learn about the moot point or concept of a lesson, accompanied by its context and outcome. Learning without conceptual understanding is best depicted by the hit Bollywood song "All Is Well" from the movie 3 Idiots - "Confusion hi confusion hai, Solution kuch pata nahin/Solution jo mila toh sala, Question kya tha pata nahin" 🙂. Be it History, Physics or Literature, inculcating the basic skills of academic research would assist them in ways unimaginable. Be it through case studies in doctoral programs or investigations conducted for work, people would be able to process, understand and implement the information they receive in the most practical ways possible.

• Interpersonal Skills

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Language is key. “But for what?” you may wonder. Language is more than just talking to people. Language helps you articulate your thoughts, express yourself, as well read these words that are scattered across your screen (albeit in an orderly manner). But yes, the first two points I mentioned (talking to people and expressing yourself) are encapsulated within the term “Interpersonal Skills”. To be precise, interpersonal skills help individuals to communicate effectively with other people so that the transfer of information (instructions, ideas, or messages) is conducted successfully. With the increasing reliance on virtual interaction (with the cameras switched off), communication in the real-world scenarios have become more complex. Stammering out of hesitation, lack of foresight in speech, and the inability to articulate one’s thoughts clearly have become some of the major issues of underdeveloped language skills. And yes, these issues arise from both language fluency as well as social skills. Hence, the school authorities must consider organizing inter-school fests, team sports, community services and student-exchange programs so that pupils can get a firsthand experience of social interaction with people from different cultures and backgrounds.

• Emotional Quotient

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While interpersonal skills are a major part of social skills, the psychological aspect of it entails the next type of Life Skills - that is, developing the student’s Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient (EQ). An individual’s ability to perceive and manage one’s emotions in a said situation has a significant impact on how they react and respond to someone or something. Necessitating Emotional Development through curricular and extracurricular activities would contribute significantly to the wellbeing of an individual. In fact, having a positive degree of Emotional Intelligence would help individuals to tackle practical circumstances with the right reactions and/or responses. Today’s 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) work place is characterised by VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity). To succeed in this dynamic environment, high EQ (Emotional Quotient) is a much-needed life skill. This can be facilitated in the school environment by conducting counselling sessions on a regular basis. Besides, the teaching faculty should be mindful of the varying levels of emotional intelligence among students, and that each student should be given proper attention so that they are able to develop emotional resilience within their own selves and thus become prepared to face real-world scenarios with a more mature outlook.

• Financial Awareness

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From my lived experiences, I can say most of us are told to “study well, get good grades, so that you can get a good job and earn well”. Today in my mid-forties, I look back with a sarcastic smile and ask, “How come no one taught us what to do with the money we earn from our so-called good jobs?”. Through research and common sense, it is evident due to the lack of financial literacy, the majority of the population do not gain financial freedom despite being in high earning jobs throughout their working life. Handling finances should be a major part of the school curriculum. As a matter of fact, Financial Literacy barely gets any attention at all in the school curriculum since it is often considered unimportant to the student’s overall development. What is more unfortunate is that the Indian school system fails to recognise the need to educate the students regarding the management of personal finances. After all, the ability to measure expenses and earnings of an individual has long-term implications. Whether it is opening a bank account, investing in mutual funds or seeking loans, students should be taught to handle finances from an early age. While the school authorities can consider organizing Financial Literacy sessions in the campus, parents should encourage their children to look for gigs to earn their pocket money. At the same time, both educators and parents should also teach the students to monitor their own expenses and earnings. That way, students will be able to develop habits such as avoiding debt, saving up, and investing to build their financial resources.

• Career Skills

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With this, we come to the final type of Life Skills which does have intricate connections with academic accomplishments as well as soft skill training. As students eventually learn about their strengths and weaknesses, develop their interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, as well as educate themselves regarding wealth management at the individual level, it is highly imperative to include Career Skills as a major segment in Secondary and Higher Secondary Education system in India. In fact, Career Guidance and Career Education is part of the formal schooling systems in OECD member countries. By hosting career induction programs in the campus, students can be exposed to the huge array of career options that they can pursue on the basis of their potential and interests. However, the school has a bigger role to play in this case - helping students recognise their own capabilities. As students take part in curricular and cocurricular activities, they will be able to make better decisions with the passage of time, in terms of their own pursuits as well as that of the collective whole. And, in turn, students will also be able to learn about their abilities and limitations. With further assistance from the school and the parents, students will be able to make good choices not only regarding the right career path for themselves, but also the necessary professional knowledge and technical skills that they are acquainted with for the said job position.

The need to deem Life Skills as an indispensable element in academics should be recognised by educators and parents alike. The absence of dialogue among policymakers and educators (along with parents) can be viewed as one of the many reasons why Life Skills is misrepresented among students as just another school subject that is easy to study. By reducing an important academic element into an exam paper eventually culminates into the lack of emotional resilience, the inability to handle finances, tendency to make poor decisions in life, or even being unable to talk to other people fluently. The effect (or effects, in this case) are quite psychological, and thus the repercussions are equally difficult to cope with.

Hence, now more than ever, it is of utmost necessity to look at Life Skills as not only a compulsory feature in the school syllabus but should also be implemented with much precision and planning. Organizing workshops on Financial Literacy, collaborating with other schools to hold student-exchange events, as well as conduct counseling sessions on a regular basis can be viewed as some of the primary steps for educators to prioritize Life Skills at the school-level. At the same time, parents should also endeavor to provide the proper ambience and interact with their wards transparently so that they can become capable of taking their responsibilities and making their decisions as individuals. Most of all, Life Skills is a way for us to manifest the aspirations of a better world with the help of our future - our kids.

Blog Collaborator: Apurba Ganguly (she/her) is an English literature student, pursuing B. Ed (English). She has been eager to understand the intricacies of Memory Studies and Visual Narratives.

Free Digital/Online Learning Resources for Students to Learn and Grow!

 

AI generated image (Bling.com)

Be it a formative assessment or a competitive exam, study materials are indispensable tools for a student’s preparations. At the same time, they contribute significantly to the student’s knowledge acquisition capabilities.

With the changing times, the medium of education and knowledge transfer has transformed immensely. Such that, digital teaching aids are currently being used extensively within and beyond the classroom to develop a better learner-centric ambience. Most importantly, the domino effect of technology being used for educational purposes was initiated quite inadvertently by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the world came to a halt, certain industries kept on with their endeavors during the pandemic, like the Education sector. As classroom teaching techniques transcended the concrete walls to be implemented in online video classes, there was a surge in demand for online tools and resources among students for better understanding of the lessons being taught in class. Thus, the need for building digital repositories was deemed necessary.

Although several organizations, private and governmental, have their own archives containing multimedia resources and study materials, we at No Herd Mentality decided to build our own repository that would benefit students to a great extent, from secondary to postgraduate level.

DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR SCHOOL STUDENTS:

• Indian Culture - Digital District Repository: 

https://indianculture.gov.in/digital-district-repository

A wonderful way to introduce young students to the extensive cultural landscape of our country, the Digital District Repository is the best starting point for parents and educators to consider. The interactive web design allows the viewers to access the historical accounts and events of each state across the country on the basis of its famous personalities, traditional and cultural forms, hidden facts and gems, as well as major events that shaped the legacy of the state. The coalescence of IT and History to educate students about the national as well as regional cultures of India is indeed a phenomenal mode to make learning a fun experience among children of all ages.

• National Digital Library of India:

https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/

The National Digital Library of India boasts of a huge array of study materials and resources for school students in classes X and XII (CBSE) to prepare for their board exams as well as various competitive exams such as GATE, JAM, IIT-JEE, NEET, UGC-NET, IBPS, RRB, SSC, and UPSC. It also features archives of scholarly works and journal publications to benefit students pursuing higher studies.

DIGITAL RESOURCES FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS - UNDERGRADUATE AND POST-GRADUATE LEVELS

• Crash Course:

https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/

One of the most popular channels on YouTube, the Vlogbrothers (Hank and John Green) came up with the idea to kickstart a separate series of educational videos that would help students in the American Education system to understand the lessons being taught in class without the hassles of study notes and homework. Thus, Crash Course came into being as a YouTube channel in 2011. In the span of over 20 years, Crash Course has created more than 1.5k videos spanning across hundreds of subjects and study topics. Be it Literature, Psychology, Physics, Philosophy, Chemistry, Film Studies and whatnot, Crash Course covers almost every aspect of the syllabi taught at the school and college levels, excluding non-US content. You can click on the link above to access their web library.

• TED Ed:

https://ed.ted.com/lessons

If Crash Course videos are too long for you to devote enough time, then you can always consider the bite-sized educational videos by TED. This series of animated videos (also available on YouTube) encompasses every major subject that is taught at the college level. However, what distinguishes TED Ed videos from other educational channels is that the former provide thought-provoking ways to viewers to look at a particular lesson or topic. Interestingly, TED Ed videos emphasize less on school test preparations and more on the need to educate students and viewers alike about the various phenomena that we see around ourselves. In short, TED Ed videos go beyond the textbook to help you read between the lines.

• SWAYAM: 

https://swayam.gov.in/

One of the major initiatives taken up by the Indian Government in terms of making education accessible to all, SWAYAM consists of a huge array of courses and materials from the disciplines of STEM, Social Science, Commerce, as well as Humanities. Nine major coordinators provide these courses that have been designed by renowned scholars and educators from across the country. While these courses are offered for free on the website, students can choose to sit for a pen-paper exam or a CBT/Computer-Based Test to get a certification for the said course. These certificates do accentuate the candidate’s professional skills as well as academic qualifications, thus creating a good impression on the recruiters.

• eGyanKosh: 

https://egyankosh.ac.in/

The courses offered on eGyanKosh are copyrighted by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Another popular digital academic repository, eGyanKosh provides course materials for different programs at the Bachelor’s degree, guiding students with the best quality resources so that they can ace the exams as well as learn about the contents of their respective programs in the long run. eGyanKosh also offers links to pre-recorded lectures, university publications, as well as self-learning materials so that students can strategize their knowledge acquisition methods accordingly.

That being said, this list of digital resources and study materials will be updated time and again with more innovative and useful academic websites and archives by us at No Herd Mentality. This way, students, parents, and educators as well can refer to these sources in the course of the learning phase, so that the students can not only understand the nitty-gritty of the lessons being taught in class, but also establish the right state of mind to frame their own ideas and opinions as independent individuals.

Apurba Ganguly (she/her) is an English Literature student, pursuing B.Ed (English). She has been eager to understand the intricacies of Memory Studies and Visual Narratives.

Careers at the intersection of STEM and Humanities for students to explore.

Recently in Episode - 61 of 'Headlines ke Peche Shekhar ke Saath' of The Print (Digital News), one of the viewer's asked Shekhar Gupta (editor-in-chief) - Why is there so much fuss about syllabus changes in NCERT Social Science? Social Sciences and History don't impart any marketable skills nor provide job opportunities. So, why are students still studying these subjects and yet hope to build a career out of this? (paraphrased in my words).

Such questions reflect the larger issues pertaining to the mindset of the mainstream society which is lopsided in favour of STEM. (We did discuss this phenomenon at length in our previous blog. Please do check out:). These prevailing career beliefs make our efforts worthwhile and motivate us to write on the intersection of STEM and Non-STEM (Humanities) careers to raise awareness, broaden the tunnel vision and expand the choices for career selection among parents and students. 

In our previous blog, we made a case for the interdisciplinary problem solving approach in 21st century, challenges which are complex and have global implications for humanity at large. 

In this blog, we attempt to distill down these esoteric thoughts to practicality and practice of such interdisciplinary disciplines. 

So let's begin by peeling off the first layer of the onion :) What is Interdisciplinary? 

The term “interdisciplinary” refers to the interconnectedness of subjects or disciplines. It brings together various branches of knowledge and encourages the individuals to assimilate multiple perspectives and connect the dots! 

Example, the economic downturn of a country (think contemporary Sri Lankan crisis) may put the economists at the center. However, the economist does not function in isolation and has to collaborate and work in integration with politicians, bureaucrats, think tanks, policy makers, researchers, inter-governmental agencies, social workers, local communities, businesses (big and small) etc. to plan, execute and audit such large-scale policy matters and its on-the-ground implementation.

Of course, by no means we can cover the length and breadth of all Interdisciplinary Courses and Careers being offered. We are making an attempt here to provide some glimpses of the practice of interdisciplinary careers, so that it removes the blind spots of students and expands their mind-space, so that they can make the right career choices. 

POLICY STUDIES 

As the name suggests, Policy Studies analyzes the very process of policy-making, and emphasizes on understanding the contents of policy. 

It contributes significantly to several aspects of National Development such as Politics, Governance, Education, Urban Planning, Sanitation, Economics, Technology, Health and Public Welfare, Agriculture, Social Justice, Employment, International Relations, and so on. 

As a member of a policy think tank, an individual is expected to investigate, study and analyze various policies of a particular area on National Development and recommend changes or suggestions to improve the same, be it on the basis of its contents or the manner of implementation. 

Policy Studies takes precedence among most areas since it offers individuals the opportunity to work with reputed scholars and experts to create a positive impact on real-world events with respect to the state per se.

Eligibility: While this is a subset of Political Science, Policy Studies can be pursued by individuals from non-Humanities fields as well. For instance, opportunities for internship in the areas of Communication and Administration can be considered by Commerce as well as Mass Communication students. 

At the same time, candidates with a UG/PG degree in Engineering, Law or Geography can apply for research positions related to water governance and GIS. Institutes such as certain IITs and the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) invite applicants to conduct research and join scholars and bureaucrats from different fields as part of their respective policy think tanks.

MEMORY STUDIES

A very recent development in academia, Memory Studies is one such domain which brings three vastly different disciplines together - XR technology, Cognitive Science, and Literature. 

Dealing exclusively with the processes of remembrance and forgetting, Memory Studies is oriented towards extensive research on the methods of creating, retaining, and forgetting memories at the individual and collective level. 

The collaboration of Extended Reality or XR [the umbrella term for AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality)] with Cognitive Science stands as a promising subfield as far as Digital Archives are concerned. Associating these two subjects with Literature, on the other hand, further extends the reach of Memory Studies to assimilate the study of personal experiences (for instance through War, Trauma, and Illness) in the overall research.

Eligibility: Students from the areas of Psychology, Literature, as well as Computer Sciences can partake as research associates or interns at the Centre of Memory Studies of IIT Madras to be involved in various projects and conferences that provide more opportunities of development in this field. Students can consider this area of studies after the completion of their postgraduate degree.

DIGITAL HUMANITIES

This domain of academics strikes (or rather endeavors to strike) a balance between STEM and non-STEM studies. Digital Humanities encompasses the modes of implementation of digital technologies in the course of studying Humanities subjects. 

At the same time, it also looks at the methods of analyzing digital technology from the lens of Humanities. The symbiotic relationship between these two has opened the floodgates of research in an array of fields - Game studies/Ludology, Digital Archiving, Data Science, Product Designing, Library Science, Software Engineering, and so on. In short, the possibilities in Digital Humanities are endless.

Eligibility: Interested students can choose to pursue a PhD in Digital Humanities from any of the IITs and IISERs. Several other universities also encourage research in this field, albeit under the discipline of Liberal Arts. Candidates can keep a track on the latest developments in the field of Digital Humanities so that they can identify their research interests accordingly.

SOCIOLOGY

Perhaps Sociology is the only subject from among other Social Sciences that is intricately connected with almost every other subject pertaining to human development and welfare. As a discipline that focuses exclusively on the study of human society, Sociology provides ample options to students to pursue unconventional career paths. 

For instance, a postgraduate degree in Social Work can help candidates land a job in a corporate organization, as part of CSR initiatives. Other areas that Sociology students can consider as potential professional opportunities include being a Research Intern/Associate/Analyst at an educational or R&D institution, specializing in Development Studies, Dalit and Tribal Studies, Anthropology, Environmental Sociology, New Media Studies, Food and Nutrition, Markets and Economies, Urban Sociology, and the list goes on.

Eligibility: Individuals with a Sociology degree can either go ahead with a postgraduate degree in any of the aforementioned subjects at premier HSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) institutions, or become a member of think tanks such as CPR to get more exposure in their respective fields.

ELT and TESL/TEFL/TESOL

English Language Teaching (ELT) courses have gathered much prominence over the years. Although there are only a handful of institutes that offer Diploma or Certificate courses on:

• ELT (English Language Teaching)
• TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)
• TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)
• TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)

With a Diploma in ELT or TESL/TEFL/TESOL, one can work as a certified trainer at British Council (while fulfilling the other necessary criteria). One can opt to become an Instructional Designer at major IT and EdTech organizations to help develop the curriculum structure and implement digital tools in schools across the globe. The demands for ELT experts have risen substantially in the post-pandemic world (possibly due to the growth of digital/Ed-Tech platforms).

Eligibility: Aspirants can consider pursuing a postgraduate degree in ELT from major universities that specialize in Language Teaching and Research, such as the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad. One can opt for a Diploma in ELT/TESL/TEFL/TESOL from EFLU or other prominent language institutes. Most importantly, it is important to stay in touch with the major innovations in this field so that students can choose their options wisely.

SPORTS STUDIES

Yes, a field that amalgamates sports and games with Humanities. While Ludology (under Digital Humanities) is more oriented towards the game itself, Sports Studies looks at the historical, social, economic, political, and cultural impact of a sport or game on the real world. 

Be it the commercialization of cricket through franchise cricket or political allegations against some countries during the Olympics, Sports Studies encompasses the modes in which sporting events influence the world we live in.

Eligibility: Although Indian academia is yet to recognize its potential, students can pursue this field via a postgraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, Policy Studies (IITs) or Cultural Studies (such as EFLU, Jamia Milia, TISS, Christ University, Tezpur University, etc.). Professionally, they can work as research scholars, sports journalists, Sports Management experts, or even as advisers to certain sports organizations to help develop their administrative structure and policy-making procedures.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) LAW at IIT Kharagpur

The IP Law program integrates technology and law to build technical lawyers with expertise to deal with legal issues in the interface of technology and law. IIT Kharagpur offers this program at two levels - L.L.B. and L.L.M.

Eligibility: Students require a first class Bachelor's Degree in Engineering/Technology/Medicine or a first class Masters in Science or Pharmacy, or a first class MBA degree with any of the aforementioned. 

INTERDISCIPLINARY MAJORS at Ashoka University 

Ashoka University offers multiple interdisciplinary majors which combines related fields and explores new approaches to study a particular field. These courses break down the traditional boundaries of disciplines/departments and give students an opportunity to combine multiple academic interests into a single degree program.  

• B.Sc. COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP, 
• B.Sc. MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE, 
• B.A. ENGLISH AND CREATIVE WRITING, 
• BSc ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, 
• B.A. ECONOMICS AND HISTORY, 
• B.A. ENGLISH AND MEDIA STUDIES, 
• B.A. ENGLISH AND PERFORMING ARTS, 
• B.A. HISTORY AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, 
• B.A. POLITICS, PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMICS

Eligibility: Students can seek admissions at the undergraduate level.

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

This is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on aspects related to social and economic development. This discipline shapes students into specialists who are trained to apply their expertise in a specific profession at a mass level to help a country develop. 

For example, a Psychologist could help the children of a country recover from the trauma inflicted by wars. Similarly, a Civil Engineer could help a country develop new networks of roads, or a Lawyer could help a country draft a new constitution.

Eligibility: Students can choose to graduate with a degree in Development Studies. Or, students who have completed their graduation in any field (Humanities can be useful) can become a fully-qualified professional in their specific area of practice, followed by Post-Graduation/Diploma in Development Studies. 

Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Tamil Nadu is a reputed institute offering programs in Development Studies. 

To wrap things up, let's go back to the beginning - the question from the viewer: 

Why is there so much fuss about syllabus changes in NCERT Social Science? Social Sciences and History don't impart any marketable skills nor provide job opportunities. So, why are students still studying these subjects and yet hope to build a career out of this?

The response from Shekhar Gupta (paraphrased in my words):

Humans are born as humans (as persons) and not born as Engineers or Doctors. The profession of the person evolves much later in life. Through their education and career choices, they become an Engineer, Doctor, Journalist, IAS etc. 

Human beings have to become well-rounded person first. 

Imagine, from class I, if a child is being taught to become an Engineer or a Doctor, the child will grow up not having an understanding of who they are?, what is their past?, what is their present context?, their society, their culture. 

In fact, the global trend now is that many renowned Science and Technology Institutes are establishing departments of Social Sciences, Humanities, Liberal Arts (such as the IITs in India). This mass-shift is happening for developing persons with an all-encompassing outlook towards the world in general. Especially in the era of AI, ML and Robotics, there is a need for our next generation to become well-rounded people and not just remain a techie, or programmed like a robot.

It is also a wrong notion that Social Studies does not lead to career opportunities. Prominent examples include IAS officers, many of whom have a background of Social Studies.

It is wrong to consider studies only for the sake of employment. Studies can also look forward to knowledge enhancement and seek for true education. If anyone can look up online about the 10 most influential people in the world, 5 of them will turn out to be philosophers.

In today's as well the future's context, Science, Technology, Social Sciences and Liberal Arts exist together in an interdisciplinary association, and not one particular discipline can exist in isolation.

Indeed, a food for thought to ponder over! And we do resonate 100% with this philosophy. What about you?

To put simply, magic awaits at the intersection of STEM and Non-STEM (humanities) disciplines. It is time to do away with all our biases and expand our horizons to STEM and Beyond! And, it is does sound similar to Buzz Lightyear's famous words, "To infinity and beyond!" (Toy Story). Well, that's how we define "interdisciplinary" and join the dots as well!

Images: Created by AI (bing.com)

Blog Collaborator:

Apurba Ganguly (she/her) is an English Literature student, pursuing B.Ed (English). She has been eager to understand the intricacies of Memory Studies and Visual Narratives.