Scribd
Upload
77 views

Constant Internet

The document discusses concerns that constant use of electronic media is changing how people's minds work. It notes that the brain remains neuroplastic into adulthood and can be rewired by new experiences. Some research has found a correlation between increased computer and internet use at home and slightly lower test scores in math and reading. However, other studies find that effects are weak and inconclusive. While new technologies may promote more cursory and distracted thinking, evidence also suggests that young people spend less time online than often claimed and that social media use is linked to more rewarding offline social lives.

Uploaded by

Monroe Ortizano
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
77 views

Constant Internet

The document discusses concerns that constant use of electronic media is changing how people's minds work. It notes that the brain remains neuroplastic into adulthood and can be rewired by new experiences. Some research has found a correlation between increased computer and internet use at home and slightly lower test scores in math and reading. However, other studies find that effects are weak and inconclusive. While new technologies may promote more cursory and distracted thinking, evidence also suggests that young people spend less time online than often claimed and that social media use is linked to more rewarding offline social lives.

Uploaded by

Monroe Ortizano
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Is Constant Use of Electronic Media Changing Our Minds?

The power of modern electronic media – the net, mobile phones and video games – to capture
the attention of the human mind, particularly the young mind, and then distract it, has lately b
ecomes subject of concern. We are, say the worriers, losing the ability to apply ourselves proper
ly lo a single task, like reading a book in its entirely or mastering a piece of music on an instru
ment, with the result that our thinking is becoming shallower.

Nicholas Carr, the American science writer, has explored this theme for his new book, The Shall
ows. in which he argues that new media are not just changing our habits but our brain too. It
turns out that the mature human brain is not an immutable seat of personality and intellect but
a changeable thing, subject to ‘neuroplasticity’. When our activities alter, so does the architectur
e of our brain, ‘I’m not thinking the way I used to think,’ writes Carr, I feel it most strongly wh
en I’m reading.’ Years of internet use have, he suspects, denied his ability to read deeply, lo ab
sorb himself in books: ‘My brain wasn’t just drifting. It was hungry. It was demanding to be fed
the way the net fed it.’ He describes gelling fidgety when faced with a long text: ‘When we go
online, we enter an environment that promotes cursory reading, hurried and distracted thinking,
and superficial learning.’

Carr cites research by Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, who concluded that consta
nt exposure to modern media strengthens new neural pathways while weakening older ones. Jus
t five hours of internet use is enough to awaken previously dormant parts of the brain’s pre -fon
tal cortex, concluded Small. For Carr, this is proof that the net can rewire the mind. He sees da
ngers. Deep thought, the ability to immerse oneself in an area of study, lo follow a narrative, to
understand an argument and develop a critique, is giving way to skimming. Young users of th
e Internet are good at drawing together information for a school project, for example, but that
does not mean they have digested it.

But is a changing mind a more stupid one? Jake Vigdor and Helen Ladd are researchers at Duk
e University, North Carolina. In a study spanning five years and involving more than 100,000 chil
dren, they discovered a correlation between declining test scores in both mathematics and readi
ng and the spread of home computers and broadband. ‘The decline In scores was in the order
of one or two percent but it was statistically significant,’ says Vigdor, ‘The drop may not be that
great but one can say that the increase in computer use was certainly not positive.’ The cut-of
f year for the study was 2005, when socialising was more primitive. Since then, social networkin
g sites have become enormously powerful consumers of young people’s time. Vigdor and Ladd
concluded that the educational value of home computing was best realised when youngsters we
re actively supervised by parents.

This tendency to skim is compounded by the temptation of new media users to ‘multi-task’. Wa
tch a youngster on a computer and he could be Facebook-ing while burning a CD or Tweeting
on his mobile phone. Modern management tends to promote multi-tasking as an expression of
increased efficiency. Science, on the other hand, does nol. The human brain is, II seems, not at
all good al multitasking – unless it involves a highly developed skill like driving. David Meyer, a
neuroscientist at the University of Michigan, says: ‘The bottom line is that you can’t simultaneous
ly be thinking about your tax return and reading an essay, just as you can’t talk to yourself abo
ut two things at once. People may think otherwise but it’s a myth. With complicated tasks, you
will never, ever be able to overcome the inherent limitations in the brain.’

Paying attention is the prerequisite of memory: the sharper the attention, the sharper the memo
ry. Cursory study born of the knowledge that information is easily available online results, say th
e worriers, in a Failure to digest it. In addition, the brain needs rest and recovery time to conso
lidate thoughts. Teenagers who fill every moment with a text or Tweet are not allowing their mi
nds necessary downtime. All rather worrying, but is it that bad?

We have been here before, of course. The Ancient Greeks tame riled the replacement of the or
al tradition with written text, and the explosion in book ownership resulting from the printing pr
ess was, For some, a disaster. In the lath century, a French salesman railed against a new devic
e that turned people into ‘dispersed’ individuals, isolated in ‘sullen silence’. He was talking about
the newspaper.

The net is supposed to consume the lives of young people, yet the only reliable studies about t
he time spent online, collated by the World Health Organization, suggest children spend betwee
n two and four hours in Front of screens, including television screens, and not six or seven, as
often suggested. Moreover, there is evidence that youngsters who use social networking sites ha
ve more rewarding offline social lives than those who do not.

A study on children and new technology in the UK included a ‘study of studies’ by Professor D
avid Buckingham of the University of London’s Institute of Education. He concluded: ‘Broadly spe
aking, the evidence about the effects of new media is weak and inconclusive – and this applies
lo both positive and negative effects.’

Certainly the ‘old’ media don’t seem to be doing that badly. An annual survey shows that sales
of children’s books this year were 4.9 per cent greater than last year, with more than 60 million
sold. The damage, if any, done by excessive computer lime may not be so much to do with w
hat is being done online as what is being missed – time spent with family or playing in trees w
ith friends.

You might also like