pafret Loc: Northeast

“How The Internet Affects Your Brain”


“How The Internet Affects Your Brain”
by sherweb

"Like most things, the Internet has its good and its dark side. And, considering the pervasiveness of the Internet in society, it is certainly having an effect on our brains. After all, everything we do affects our brain. Though up until the 1980’s, it was universally believed that the steam engine was the foremost invention of the Industrial Revolution, technology and science historian, Lewis Mumford, had long before proposed that that clock was in fact the key machine of the modern Industrial age. And, just as people began operating and planning according to seconds and minutes, in the age of the internet, we are rewiring our “plastic” brain to function more and more like computers. Processing, decoding and storing floods of information at a rate faster than we ever have before, our brains are becoming highly adapted to taking on scores of tasks at once.

A 2008 study conducted by the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA found that middle-aged and older adults who spent time browsing the web not only boosted their brain power but also could help prevent cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia later on in life. The study looked at the brain activity of 24 neurologically normal volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76. Half had experience web surfing, the other half did not. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans the scientists recorded the brain-circuitry changes (the blood flow through the brain) and compared them as the patients performed web searches and as they read book passages.

A remarkable finding was that though all participants showed significant brain activity during book-reading tasks, which correspond to language, reading, memory and visual abilities, the web-savvy group also registered activity in the areas of the brain which control decision-making and complex reasoning. With the wealth of choices available on the net, knowing how to perform the most effective searches and making decisions on what to click on, engages important cognitive circuits in the brain. This finding also demonstrated that our brains are sensitive, or, “plastic”, and can continue to learn as we grow older.

So spending time on the Internet can be beneficial as you get older, but what about when you’re young? According to researchers from Michigan State University, home Internet access can be a good educational tool, especially for hard-to-reach populations. Also, it has had positive effects on the academic performance of low-income, mostly African American children and teenagers.

On a whole, there have been significant improvements in reading achievements which are attributable to the fact that spending more time online means spending more time reading (typically). source. Moreover, findings indicate that children who used the Internet for an average of 30 minutes a day, had higher standardized test scores in reading and higher grade point averages, compared to those who used it less. However, Internet use had no effect on math scores.

Too much of something is bad enough. The Internet is definitely keeping our brains active and also doing a great deal to improve our efficiency, but some researchers and psychologists worry that the impact of information overload can also have its damaging effects on our lives. Atlantic Monthly’s article Is Google Making Us Stupid questions the flipside of the complex information system. According to developmental psychologist at Tufts University, Maryanne Wolf, “We are not only what we read. We are how we read.”

“Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net, a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology, the printing press, made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged. Deep reading, as Maryanne Wolf argues, is indistinguishable from deep thinking.”

Just because we have more information, doesn’t necessarily mean that the information is better. In fact, it could even be argued that information is being dumb-down and infantilized due to our ever-shrinking attention spans. This bombardment of information, according to some psychologists and researchers, could even end up “interfering with our sleep, sabotaging our concentration and undermining our immune systems.”
- http://blog.sherweb.com/how-the-internet-affects-your-brain/
Source: http://www.apa.org/monitor/mar98/smog.html

But God forbid...

maureenthannon

WeYou need to connect with real live people. We need time to be with and talk to people. The internet can hel with this, I've been able to find some old friends tht I haven't seen in years. But, like evrything, we need moderation(does this word exist for teen agers?). The internet can definitely be a good thing if we're careful and don't let it become where we spend all our time. It shouldn't replace real life./

GmanTerry

That seems to be harder and harder to do. I'm old and will never understand modern social norms. Used to be you talked to someone on the phone at home. You had to be at home to use the phone. Then the flip phone made it's appearance and you could exchange ideas anywhere because the phone was portable. Then SMS messaging became the norm. Now it is socially unacceptable to call someone. You need to text them to get permission first. For example, my son just texted me yesterday that he is moving to the east coast. Five paragraphs of text. Done. You cannot carry on a conversation using SMS. Although we are both using iPhones it's a social foux pas to talk to each other. I'm old enough to be the kind of person who would rather drive somewhere to talk to someone in person rather than talk on the phone. How can you live your life communicating in short paragraphs. People need to be able to exchange more than just words with each other. A smile, a nod adds so much to a relationship and an understanding.

Semper Fi

pafret Loc: Northeast

Welcome to the Dinosaur club! I do not have a smart phone or any flip phone. I have a land line and it brings enough unwanted calls per day to make me wish to shut off incoming calls. My son has the usual smart phone and it drives me crazy when he is near because it is perpetually duck squacking, siren calling, fire alarm blaring and strange woman talking out of nowhere, overriding the conversation I was having. These are his notifications for texts, appointments, emergency alerts and news and weather feeds; all of which he usually ignores.

All of my children have these phones and they communicate regularly; if I want to speak to them I have to call them and they don't answer. They may get back to me several days later. Being a stubborn bastard I refuse to call people who do not answer their phones and do not respond promptly to me, the Pater Familias. I have gone so far as to refuse to attend family gatherings because the first notification I got was my my son saying "Aren't you ready, we have to go to Charlotte's and we are late for Ziggy's birthday. My response has been "I have other plans and won't be attending".

In a general sense, I wonder about the effects immersion in phones and handheld game devices will have on the next generations abilities, to interact, in societal situations. We experienced bullies, saints, sinners, nasty people, noble people and every category of mankind possible. Whether we liked it or not, we judged these people and came to conclusions about ethnic groups and different classes. These judgements guided us through life. They formed the knowledge base through which we filtered information derived from great writings (which are no longer read) and our interactions with our fellows. Our interactive experiences allowed us to derive the basic truths of the human condition and these form the basis with which we interpret any occurrence, personal, local or national.

Without this experience base and immersion in literate exposition of humanity what will these next generation people use to form their opinions and actions? We see many videos showing just how ignorant young people (18 -30) are about any historical or worse, current events. They do not involve themselves in their cultural environment and simply allow things to happen. They have no understanding of lust for power, cupidity, greed, and hubris. They will ultimately glow in the dark by allowing the psychopaths to gain control of their destiny because they will not recognize in what they are trusting their lives; no modify that, they have abandoned their lives.

Dissociation by machine intervention diminishes them in ways they will never comprehend. They are on their way to becoming Eloi and they have forgotten there are Morlocks waiting to prey on them.

badbobby Loc: texas

Mama is always tellin me that I spend too much time on my comp
guess she is right