• Many effects of digital technology are yet to be discovered.digital technologies concept: a luminous girl in t image by Stasys Eidiejus from Fotolia.com
  
  From flat-panel televisions and the signals sent to them to calculators and iPhones, the Western world (and a good part of the Eastern world) is filled with digital technology. Generations to come will grow up in a world where digital technology has always been around, and while the long-term effects of digital technology have yet to be measured, there are several ways that technology has affected us right now.
  
  

Multitasking

• Many digital devices, such as the iPhone and the computer, are designed with the capability of performing multiple tasks at once. With the first generation of "digital natives" now in full bloom, an explosion in multitasking is becoming apparent. While many stand by their ability to multitask, Stanford professor Clifford Nass, who has conducted tests on multitaskers, says that multitaskers are no good at any task: "They get distracted constantly. Their memory is very disorganized. Recent work we've done suggests they're worse at analytic reasoning. We worry that it may be creating people who are unable to think well and clearly." Instances of distracted driving and accidents would seem to correspond with the professor's worst fears. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Nearly 6,000 people died in 2008 in crashes involving a distracted driver, and more than half a million were injured."
  
  

Digital Processing

• As generations begin to use digital technology at younger and more impressionable ages, technology is having an effect on the brain's processing of information. According to a "Business Week" report by Don Tapscott, author of "Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation Is Changing Your World," the next generation will have spent more than 30,000 hours (per child) on the Internet and playing video games. Scientists have found that this will change the way these children process information. According to a 2003 article in "Nature," "People who play a lot of action video games, for instance, process visual information more quickly than people who don't."
  
  

Progress Gap

• One effect of digital technology is becoming readily apparent to anyone who travels or watches the world news. As technology advances at digital rates of speed, the gap between developed and underdeveloped nations becomes ever wider. Already, many in the United States have a hard time imagining life without computers, cellular phones or other technological wonders brought about by the digital revolution. As these gaps become wider, the pressure on underdeveloped nations will be even greater, since they lack the essential technology to stay competitive in manufacturing markets.