How Is Technology Changing the Brain?

An anonymous reader writes "An article at silicon.com explores how the use of technology might be changing the brain — including interviews with Nicholas Carr and Susan Greenfield. 'The research suggests the brain acts almost like a muscle - bulking up in regions required to perform oft-repeated mental tasks but diminishing in regions used for less common types of thinking. Or to put it another way, for example: do a lot of mental arithmetic, and your brain will get better at doing mental arithmetic. ... [Carr] goes on to suggest there is now a body of evidence that indicates the human brain adapts to suit how we use it. The question that follows is whether our technologies are making the best use of our grey matter.' The article makes an interesting point about how skill-loss is only part of the picture: 'When we look at technology we can't just look at loss, we also have to look at gain, and we also have to look at skillsets in the context of the modern world — our grandparents' skillset is not the skillset that will serve us the best.'"

We need to be careful in dismissing old skills.

[Chrisq]

We need to be careful in dismissing old skills. Just because we may not need them for our work doesn't mean that losing them won't have a negative impact. Look at the parallel with physical exercise. we can do our jobs without any for a time, but if we never exercise then eventually we will get physical and mental issues that will undermine our performance and well-being. It could be the same with memory tasks; we can do with a lower level for a while but if we always have access to google, schedules, etc. could we reach a point where our lack of memory impairs our usefulness even with these tools? Or could it lead to earlier problems with day to day living as we age? I would be cautious about relying on technology too much.

Get over it

[fortapocalypse]

"She has also variously called for more research on whether there is a link between ADHD and internet use, and has also questioned whether increases in autism might be down to too much screen time." No, the problem is that today we have to diagnose everything. Once you put a name on it, then doctors and pharmacists can help you "fix" it. Both a primary physician and a psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD recently told me that ADHD is overdiagnosed. When doctors that see it all the time tell you it is over diagnosed, then you should start to question whether we should just accept that the rate of ADHD is actually rising. In addition, Asperger syndrome is getting a lot of publicity in the past several years, and now there is even a main character in a popular TV show "Parenthood" that has it. If you are looking at the ground instead of into people's eyes now instead of "shy" they say you are borderline Asperger's. When will this madness stop? Why can't we just call people "hyper", "slow", "lazy", "shy", "wierd", "dumn", or "scary"? Those words carried less baggage with them and people didn't obsess about them. It is one thing if you can truly help someone get better, but in many cases it is just a label and another reason to feel like you were handed the short end of the stick rather than to give you reason to try to be normal on your own.

A simple test

[ThatsNotPudding]

Dig in: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/kansas/genweb/ottawa/exam.html [lib.ks.us]