You can crush a man with journalism - William Randolph Hearst
|
|
|
Noodling about on the Interwibble can alter your brain
THE INTERNET IS bending our brains neurologically in what some scientists posit to be the beginnings of an evolutionary change meant to bump tech-sperts to the top of the social pecking order.
A neuroscientist and director at the Memory and Aging Research Centre in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, Gary Small, reckons the human brain is becoming better at sifting through information and making snappy decisions. This, he puts down to exposure of our brain to the Internet and the relative ease with which tech-savvy people today can come up with information they need.
In an interview with Reuters, Small noted, "We're seeing an evolutionary change", but added that those who would really have the edge in future generations would be those "who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills". So revenge of the nerds is all very well, as long as you’re a somewhat socially adept nerd.
One of the studies carried out by Small looked at the brain activity of 24 adults as they surfed the web. The results indicated that the users who were pros at noodling about on the Net demonstrated double the activity in areas of the brain controlling decision-making and complex reasoning than the Interwibbling newbies.
But it’s not all good news for those letting a daily dose of tech warp their minds. Along with the beneficial boost in creativity and a potential for accelerated learning, some scientists believe the Internet can also be addictive, cause Attention Deficit Disorder and create social problems for people whose whole social life is virtual instead of 'real world'.
Also, internet junkies can cause themselves serious stress and even damage neural networks by constantly scanning the web for new tidbits of information, apparently.
"There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language," said Small in a monotonous voice as he stared blankly into space. µ
L'Inq
Reuters
Share this:
Share
I agree. If anything, the people who rely upon technology will certainly blend into the technological society better than those non-techies, but at what cost? The ability to look up information easily will probably mean that at the same time, they are loosing the ability to remember things (because they don't have to). People may be changing becuase of technology, but it's not necessarily beneficial, as the article seems to suggest. It's simply gaining one skill at the expense of another.
Evolution would occur if tech-savvy was selected for somehow. However, it's not! In the US the selection process favors idiots. Smart people are hard to control, and nobody 'In Charge' likes them. No, idiots get all the benefits, while the smart ones are taxed to ribbons. After all, uncritical idiots can be counted on to vote predictably. Wait a few more days, you'll see it in action.
No thanks to you inq, My brain hurts.

I hope your proud of that.

(you should be)
Evolutionary change results when natural selection takes place... since the internet has not been with us for a single generation the statement that it is causing evolutionary change is somewhat premature, about 10,000 years premature. I would like to see the evidence that shows not using the internet can reduce your chance of reproducing.

The change induced in our brains by technology is developmental because neurons grow depending on how they are used, that is not the same as evolutionary change which results in a change of genotype. 

The acid test is that this kind of development is not passed on genetically, it has to be reacquired by each generation in a process of experience and learning.

What the author is saying is that people who use computers become better at it, which is really stating the obvious, but someone has to do it. By using the word evolution innappropriately however he confuses everyone and sells more books by exploiting the fear of inadequacy. 

Which helps.... not a lot.
Well, the whole purpose of evolution is survavial of the fittest, a process which we long forsake as a species. It is irrelevant that a techie will evolve faster and have two kids to prolong the evolved species since your garden variety redneck will still marry his cousin and have 12 children. I strongly recommend a movie "Idiocracy" as a more plausible alternative to StartTrek vision of the future.