The technological world has increased rapidly in the past 100 years. The past 50 years has shown an ever greater increase than the 100 before that. Technology seems to be exponentially developing to some degree. But what are all of these increases in the use of technology doing to us? How are our brains being affected?
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It seems there are some problems developing from our dependence on technology that replace or diminish functional aspects of our brain. This includes:
- Memory
- Attention
- Reading
- Multitasking
- Social Skills
- Sleep
- Mood
- Navigation
Memory
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Short-term memory is affected by our use of technology, while long term memory requires more study. As we use more technology as a store and recall of information, we are less reliant on our own memory. We engage in 'cognitive offloading' and a symbolic 'digital dementia' develops. There is a shrinking in the frontal lobe that is responsible for planning and organization. This might just be for Internet addicts, and not regular users of the Internet.
Depending on technology for memory recall also makes memories less vivid in our internal-"reality" of the consciousness imagination factory. People who look at objects for later recall of the objects and of their details, perform better than those who take pictures who also attempt to do memory recall.
The advantage to offloading memories to technology is that we have less clutter and more room for new information and memories to be stored.
Attention
Credit: Pogrebnoj-Alexandroff/wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
Attention spans are down. That seems to be the case the more we study our current condition. A 2015 study of 2000 Canadians reported an average attention span of 8 seconds, contrasting the earlier 2000 attention span of 12 seconds. A goldfish has an attention span of 9s. We seem to be devolving...
It's not looking good for the new generation either. 87% of 2000 teachers in Puerto Rico said the attention span of children is shorter. Similarly, in UK, out of 400 teachers and 2000 parents, 70% say the attention span of children is not what it used to be.
With technology, we have an increased desire for immediate attention gratification, and a decreased ability to focus and be patient.
Reading
Credit: Martouf/wikimedia, Public Domain
More research is needed, but in general, technology seems to be making us less thorough readers. Most people tend to scan or skim pages of text and mostly click links, rather than engage in deeper reading that is usually done with paper text.
From students of similar reading skill, two groups were formed to read and test comprehension. One group was for paper text, and the other LCD text. Those doing LCD reading has lower comprehension scores of what they allegedly "read". The retention of information is not being done as much.
Multitasking
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Technology does help to make us better multitaskers in a sense, but at a cost. The "infomania" "always-on" culture has many tech distractions, like emails, texts, phone calls, etc.
A study of IQ tests while technological distractions were present, indicated an average reduction by 10 IQ points, compared to a quiet room. This seems to indicate a likelihood in general distractions to impair memory and concentration in testing, rather than it being a case for technology along.
Certainly, the advent of more technology increased the amount of distractions in our lives, thereby increasing the amount of time in a day we are likely to be affected by distractions to perform our tasks.
Frequent multitasking shows "smaller grey matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex" where empathy and decision making takes place. I think this relates to how paying attention and focusing on something allows us to recognize it and empathize with it if need be. When we don't pay attention, ignore, we are cold, and don't really empathize.
Social Skills
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Social media is a new hangout location in a virtual reality. For those that are already predisposed to disengaging in objective reality, this can be a danger for their social development. In our families, we tend to spend more time looking down on our devices, which results in less face time with parents compared to previous generations. This affects our ability to recognize facial expressions. Dr Arie Sigman says "they [excessive Internet users] find it more difficult to read faces in experiments".
But, the Internet and technology makes learning faster, and more easily accessible unlike any previous generation. We just need positive influences, from caring peers and adults, who support and guide children to better sources of media to learn and develop from.
Sleep
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Bedtime screen use will change your sleeping patterns. Blue light emits a frequency found in sunlight that tells the pineal gland to stop producing melatonin, which is the sleep hormone. This keep us awake and alert more to pay attention to the light-emitting device.
We spend more time each day texting or gaming than sleeping, by 20 minutes now. I don't do texting or gaming, but I do spend more time on my computer than I do sleeping.
Mood
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Some people are more affected by use of technology. Heavy Internet users show more signs of depression. Dr. Arie Sigman says "There is a relationship between the amount of time you spend on social media and increased body dissatisfaction. High consumption of idealized images seems to activate neural networks in the brain like the amygdala, associated with fear and anxiety."
The influence of contrasting information to your self-view or worlview can be wrought with fear and anxiety. Some of it more legitimate than others, i.e. contrasting truth and falsity in morality vs. contrasting physical appearances.
Some people who are more into the technology and Internet use it because they are depressed. Though there is no direct causal link to the correlation between heavy Internet use and depression.
Navigation
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Indeed, technology can change our brains when it comes to navigation like GPS. Taxi drivers who know the city they drive in by memory, have more posterior hippocampus gray matter. This improves their memory tasks for landmarks to find their way in their mental map. Although, their anterior hippocampus is reduced, making for poorer visual information recall.
Non-GPS users are similar, with more hippocampus gray matter for better memory recall.
Overall, technology is affecting the way our minds and brains process the environment. This in turn affects how we are going to act, behave and respond in that environment. There are negatives to the positive enhancements that technology brings to our lives.
The more we are aware of the negatives brought about through our use of technology, the more empowered we can be through that knowledge of it's pitfall. Despite the negative effects, we can find ways of counterbalancing them and further improve our lives.
References:
- 8 Ways Tech Has Completely Rewired Our Brains
- How Technology Is Rewiring Your Brain
- Modern technology is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist
- How tech is rewiring your brain
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
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i would disagree with you in some part. we have technology nowadays because of the value they provide to us, GPS is one of that, without it it's hard to navigate it manually especially if we aren't familiar with the place and even if we don't use a tech, people still forget things because we aren't perfect and technology is just a leverage to our daily lives.
GREAT WRITE-UP AGAIN!
Thanks a lot for sharing this very important knowledge as it does need to find more exposure than it has for the moment. Many parents and concerned citizens of this world are asking the hard questions which often are relating to the answers you shared with us here.
Upvoted, shared and resteemed!
Namaste :)
Thanks for the support ;)
Great information.
It is so difficult, almost impossible to live without the influence of technology these days, but if we do make an effort there are many unnecessary things we can do on our own without the help of hi-tech.
I personally find it difficult to read through long articles on the internet/computer. I tend to move to something else and come back later. But if it is on paper I can read without any difficulty and I do absorb much more.
I HAVE RESTEEMED THIS POST, BECAUSE I BELIEVE THERE IS VITAL INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE AND THE WORD MUST GET AROUND.
Yeah, it's easier to read paper, it's a real thing ;)
Very good points indeed.
I shut down any and all electronic devices about an hour before I go to sleep, and when I started doing so ~4 years ago, I instantly noticed drastically improving sleep relaxation. Together with release of toxic thought patterns and consequent physical body density release, there has almost never been a day when I didn't wake 100% comfortable on every level. As so often, Humans ignore things they cannot perceive with their eyes. If they were to see the electric energy floating around hither and tither, some people would probably rethink this issue.
And yes, the social aspect is not to neglect either. Especially in the wake of my Spiritual journey I have found superficial exchange of words absolutely superfluous, and I don't take stock in learning some phrases learnt by heart, which then allow me to call myself apt of "social know-how", a thing having increased due to technological impact of smart phones etc..
Authenticity is the panacea in every social interaction.
Yeah small talk is a waste of time for me too... so much more important things to talk about :P
Will use this as a reading exercise, great to find such a suite of effects described in a clear and straightforward way. The goldfish attention span analogy was updated just a few months ago, some people are now operating at 8 seconds!
Damn... 4 second drop :P
This is a great alert for me, I have a 3 year old boy, who I reward with an hour on my tablet at night, he uses it to play and watch children's videos, always with my supervision, I never saw this practice negative, because the child has adapted to the fact that it is a prize for behaving well and is not a total part of his life, but this changes the landscape, thank you very much for sharing it, it is important information for everyone.
Thank you for sharing.
Yes, tech does change the way we live and like you said, this changes are coming faster and faster. I guess at one point we will have to make a step or two back.
Some people like Ted Kazinski viewed technology as evil I guess... He had some valid points to make in his literature despite doing harm to others.
It was great to read your post, and I have benefited greatly from knowing the technology relationship. Hopefully, I will notify you more about this.
Glad you gained value form it.
You are right @krnel, .Usefully post, thanks for sharing...
You're welcome :) Glad you gained value form it ;)
This is a really educative post...
Its good information
The convenience of technology has made us more lazy and has led us to health concerns. With the constant viewing of computer screens comes cataracts earlier in life. Addictions to social media also play a part. We want convenience and instant knowledge in our fast paced world, we pay the price. I believe our society is less social and more generic as a result of being plugged in. We have lost that personal touch. Thanks @krnel for such an informative and well written article.
Where did you get that? Any proof that this is what happens?
We are indeed less social locally connected, but more socially globally connected... the personal touch is lessened indeed.
I was told of the cataract thing from the surgeon e that did my cataract surgery.
As a teacher, I must say that technology is spoiling the brains of our students, they are wasting their time on social media rather on their studies,
Particularly technology affects me when establishing interpersonal relationships. I have always recognized that it is easier for me to write a message to another person than to engage in a face-to-face conversation, and the summit of the case is that I am a social communicator. However, day by day I work on making an improvement on it.
yeah i have to wear blue blocker glasses so i get tired at night.
Good on you for doing that. If you don't, what happens?
I find it much harder to sleep at night if I'm watching TV or on the ol' Ipad right before bed... gotta block the blue. It makes you very wired... kinda like drinking coffee. It's less noticeable during the day when you aren't trying to wind down.
I laugh subtly.
Tech has done more good than harm but it s sometimes good to pay attention to the harm so as to know if there is any harm that can be mitigated.
But wait a minute... imagine a world without tech because I couldn't.
Indeed, we have to adapt to it :/
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