Distractions and Free Will

To Steven Pinker, who you are was predetermined before you were born. Your brain, and chemical framework is preexisting. Essentially, there's no such thing as free will when it comes to genetics. Your identity and everything that comes with it is already made up. While I believe Pinker definitely has a point that genetics has a huge part in who we are, he seems to take the argument bit too far. Anyone who has looked back on their life can point out individual instances that have helped form them. It's ridiculous to act as if the events in our life have zero effect in forming us. For an example, I'll use a personal story.

To anyone who has taken adderal, you understand what concentration can actually be like. To sit in one spot, with study tunnel-vision going on can feel pretty rewarding. We go to an institution that can be quite academically demanding, and for many study drugs offer a leg up. Some people claim that adderal allows them to remove all the parts of their personality that they don't like and become themselves. As someone who had a prescription for over a year, I can see where these people are coming from. I was never diagnosed with ADHD, but I definitely had the symptoms. Easily distracted and chaotic, my concentration was easily affected. I remember one instance where I was at a movie theater and caught myself counting the lights in the ceiling. After I'd done it 8 times, I realized that maybe I did in fact have some sort of attention deficit order.

My freshman year of college, I decided to try the magic pill. Unfortunately, I took 30 milligrams and was awake for 36 hours. Stupid. Over the next year and a half, I would take adderal regularly. As I became older, I started to ween myself off of the little blue pill. Sick of the side effects of lack of sleep and mellowing moods, life just wasn't as fun on aderral. I rarely take it now, able to concentrate without a drug assist.

Now, the question remains: would I have learned how to concentrate naturally? Or did taking aderral alter my brain chemistry? Or maybe just understanding what concentration actually feels like made the difference? Some people argue that this drug is dispensed to children at too young of an age. That by giving them a pill that forces concentration, we rob them of all the things that makes being a kid fun. An ethical debate over whether children are actually children on drugs forms. That perhaps, not paying attention is part of a healthy childhood. I for one am glad that I got to be obnoxious when I was younger. Some of my best memories involve not paying attention, although at my teachers' ire.

So Pinker, am I a product of nature or nurture? My voluntary choice to "better" myself changed who I am today. I had free will to choose to take adderal. I chose a path away from distractions. If I hadn't, I'd probably still be stuck on youtube today.