Thursday, 31 December 2009
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Is Technology Good For Your Brain?
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A guest post from Kat Sanders.
She regularly posts at The Pharm Tech Blog.There are many reasons to be grateful to technology and the millions of ways it has made life easier and more comfortable for all of us.
We cannot imagine a world without technology today, because it has crept into every aspect of our lives and made itself indispensable in more ways than one.
Not many people (unless they’re die-hard technophobes) have anything against technology, but if there’s one grouse I have, it’s that the hundreds of thousands of wonderful invention of mankind have contributed to the comprehensive dulling of the human brain.
When you think of it, our brain cells have less work to do because of the conveniences that technology offers us:
- We don’t remember things that we used routinely commit to memory: How many of us bother to remember phone numbers of friends and family members when it’s just easier to dial them from the contact lists on our mobile phones? And how many of us keep directions in mind after the advent of the wonder we call GPS? You have to admit that technology has made things easier for the idiots among us, but it has not done anything useful for the longevity and continued health of our neurons.
- Everything is handed to us on a platter that we don’t have to work for it anymore: With the Internet and related technology, searching for information has become so much easier than it was a decade ago. While you would think this is a good thing, what we do not realize is that there is a surfeit of information out there and not many of us bother to check which sources are authentic and which are not. This is because information is being handed to us without us having to go in search of it, without our brains being involved, that we stop questioning its veracity.
- Mindless activities are replacing intelligent ones: Technology and gaming have come together to bring violence and action into our lives. While games, those of the indoor kind, were supposed to keep your brains in working order in another life, today, they serve to exercise nothing except your hand and eyes. Your brain is hardly involved, and you react instinctively rather than intelligently.
With the high occurrence of mental illnesses like Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain diseases, it’s time to focus on mental health and on activities that help improve you’re cognitive and memory functions.
What do you think? Is technology good for the brain?Post contributed from www.StuffYourBrainLikes.com.
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Comments (5)
Like everything in life, there is always good and bad things about anything. I feel that technologies are pretty important in this day and age. However, I think we're way too dependent of it. Technologies are supposed to save you time ... but at the end of the day, do you have more time to do the things you want to do?
Technology is a blessing and a curse. It's all how you use it. My memory is borderline fried and strange, so the computer helps me. It keeps me in awareness instead of being everywhere or not having a sense of self without having to adapt to everyone else. I rebel against google's thought process though and priorities. I think people serve themselves too much, so they become comfortable with the wrong information. It's free and easy and you watch too much television so it goes into your brain like sugar. I'm kind'of getting tired of information not being well managed, however, or having any sort'of face where I can see a clear agenda.
A lot of people are becoming like the people in Wall-E and that's what is desired so whatever. It's a little frustrating though. I get sick of the dead and avatars.
As for games, it depends on the type you play. Once you learn the rules and practice, none are too difficult. I think you are referring to the action games. Yeah, once you beat one or two of those, you've played them all. It's like reading a trashy novel. The Sims are like playing dolls. I like the little mind building games, but I definitely need to start building things in reality if I want to develop myself. I enjoy 3D puzzles the most, though it's been awhile. We need tasks that aren't instant, take time to develop patience. That's becoming the biggest problem, I think, that and not understanding how you received skills and other things.
I dunno... I often end up taking way more time than I meant to online looking up and authenticating sources...
It's a tricky subject. If modern technology is bad for our brains then we can't really say blogging is ok. can't have it both ways. and I find it beneficial to be able to talk to a lot people about anything from music to politics. I know it's a give and take though. I could be doing other things.
I don't really agree that technology dulls brains either. Again it's a give and take. People are a lot better at multitasking. And I don't believe that the quality of the task being performed is what suffers. Um, take video games for instance. You really have to multitask to be good at them. What you give up is attention span I think. I have no proof of this, but I don't think brain cells are doing less. Just being put to work differently. (Also, don't you think it's a bit of a leap to link computers and stuff to diseases? Yes, we can compensate by focusing on memory health. BUT, that doesn't mean technology is to blame, simply because it allows us not to have to commit the same type of things to memory. I'd argue that remembering pin numbers and passwords if you have more than one, video game codes, even how to use the phone that stores you phone numbers for you is significant.)
Technology once included stone hammers. It's been around wince we figured out how to use tools. Technology itself doesn't hurt brains. Humans adapt to just about anything. We're pretty resiliant.
If your "brain is hardly involved, and you react instinctively rather than intelligently," then you're playing the wrong games.
"We don’t remember things that we used routinely commit to memory" How many of us bother to remember phone numbers of friends and family
members when it’s just easier to dial them from the contact lists on
our mobile phones?
But then back in the day before cell phones, numbers were (max) 7 digits. That's the greatest capacity the brain can remember... 7 things. Nowadays we have the 7 digits AND the area code... who can keep that all in order?
"...there is a surfeit of information out there and not many of us bother
to check which sources are authentic and which are not. This is because
information is being handed to us without us having to go in search of
it, without our brains being involved, that we stop questioning its
veracity."
Not necessarily! Databases have primary sources! You just have to know where to look. There are news websites, and although it's not PHYSICALLY straining, mentally, we're going through cyber loops to discern the truth from the lies. Those who can't do that or won't do that aren't doing it because technology is destroying their brain, it's because of their LACK OF WILL (aka laziness!) Because it's so much harder to figure out what is a truth vs what is a lie, doesn't that mean that the brain would naturally work HARDER to find the truth that it wants? Not to mention that colleges and high schools demand students to find LEGITIMATE sources, so they teach us what those ARE. Therefore, unless a person is lazy, there is no excuse for trusting illegitimate sources.
"Your brain is hardly involved, and you react instinctively rather than intelligently."
You would be correct if you were describing someone who is a button masher (aka someone who doesn't know what they're doing and therefore smash buttons to do SOMETHING) For fighter games, there are techniques and strategies that people use to combine moves to defeat their opponents. Without their use of a brain, that would not be possible. Unless you can link me to a legitimate study that has results that increased sales in violent games (fighter games, adventure games) also increase the amount of crime in any city/ neighborhood, I can't agree with you on this point.
I'm not going to say technology is GREAT or HORRIBLE for a mind, but without anything to back up your claims besides speculation (although my vid. game may be one as well) I don't think I can agree or disagree at this point.
By the By, if you see a word in caps, it's because I want to emphasize, not because I want to bash your article. Although it got my brain juices working through my technological computer! Good job!