It seems that using the internet makes our brains demand more rapid stimulation, according to a study. And, it goes on to explain, this has negative effects on some mental abilities.
I don’t know about the science of it, but i do some times feel that using the internet has a decidedly negative effect on my attention span. I sometimes wonder if using the internet ironically makes me less able to blog effectively. To come up with interesting things to write about, I read and multi-task quite a lot to find interesting topics, and I can’t help but feel it has something of a detrimental effect on my ability to actually think critically about the issue, which is the primary reason I blog.
The internet is invaluable for gathering information, of course, but sometimes I’m not sure if I’m equipped to handle it. (This Dilbert comic puts it rather well–in the first four panels, that is.)
Hmmm… well, all I have is pop-psych, but I'll give it a shot.Various studies have said the same about video games and music videos -both of which give faster input than "normal" life.I don't know about you, but my internet habits are a lot like skimming a newspaper – I have a few "columnists" I read, but I mostly scan through stuff, taking in what I find interesting, skipping past other stuff, and easily distracted by the bra ads. But again, faster input.So maybe there's something to what the professor says. I have noticed that a lot of kids seem to get a lot of their social interaction online these days.I'm usually able to control it, though I do sometimes get to bed later than I'd like. On the other hand, I multitask reasonably well. Maybe that's what the internet will develop. Given time, maybe the people who can balance things will be more successful, and we'll evolve into people with better-wired brains.Or maybe we'll end up socially-dysfunctional losers, overweight and pasty, isolated in our self-imposed bubbles, staring at a screen instead of seeing the world around us.I think it's about 50-50 which way we'll go.