How good software makes us stupid?

How good software makes us stupid?

How does technology make people stupid?

People assume that iPhones, laptops and Netflix are eviof of SS. in some ways, that's true. a moderate amount of Googling, for instance, can be good for your brain, and there are apps that can boost brain function and activity. yet tech advancements also come with some unintended consequences. our brains being "massively rewired" by tech, says neuroscientist Michael Merzenich in the shallow S: what the Internet is doing to our brains, a Pulitzer-nominated 2011 book by Nicholas Carr. merzenich warns that the effect of technology on human intelligence cocould be "deadly. "that got us thinking. how exactly is technology messing up our brains?

People think that iPhone, notebook, and netfei are evidence of technological advances. In some ways, this is true. For example, moderate online search is good for your brain, and there are also many applications that can promote brain operation and make your brain active. However, technological advances are also accompanied by unpredictable consequences. Michael Merzenich, A neurosystem scientist, pointed out in his book: how the Internet has poisoned our brain, that our brain has been restructured on a large scale by technology. This book was translated by Nicholas Carr, I nominated the proce Award in 2011. Merzenich warned that the impact of technology on human intelligence would be "Fatal ". So how does technology make our minds messy?

1. Tech is screwing up your sleep (technology screwed up your sleep)

Studies have shown that blue-enriched light, which is emitted by gadgets like smartphones, tablets and laptops, can suppress the body's release of melatonim at night. melatonin is a key hormone that helps regulate your internal clock, telling your body when it is nighttime and when to feel sleepy. blue light can disrupt that process, making it impossible for you to stick to a proper sleep schedule. losing sleep has a number of negative effects on your brain. if you're not logging seven or more hours of sleep each night, you might suffer from increasingly bad moods, decreased focus at work and problems with memory, not to mention a loss of actual brain tissue-all of which makes you less than a joy to be around.

Studies have showed that the blue light from smartphones, tablets, and laptops can inhibit the release of melatonin at night. Melatonin is a key hormone that regulates the human biological clock and keeps your body working properly. Blu-ray will interrupt this process, so you cannot observe the normal schedule. Insomnia has a series of negative effects on your brain. If you haven't slept for more than seven hours at night, you may be in a bad mood the next day, you may not be able to concentrate on your work, or you may have memory problems-all these make you feel down.

2. You're easily distracted (You're easily distracted)

You don't really need science to know this, but technology makes it much easier to get distracted, whether that's stepping away from an important project to check your smartphone or flipping between multiple browser tabs without really focusing on any one. it has been proven that toggling between multiple tasks at once doesn' t actually work-in fact, you just wind up refreshing all your duties even worse.

Technology can easily distract you, whether it's when you're talking about important projects, when you open multiple browsing pages but do not focus on any window. Facts have proved that it is useless to complete multiple tasks at a time, so that you cannot do anything well.

Teens in particle are more distracted than ever. A 2012 Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,400 teachers found that most educators feel students are more distracted than previous generations. some 87 percent of teachers agreed with the statement, "today's digital technologies are creating an easily distracted generation with short attention spans, "While 64 percent agreed with the idea that" today's digital technologies do more to distract students than to help them academically. "yikes.

Especially teenagers are more likely to be distracted. In 2012, the Pew Research Center surveyed more than 2400 teachers and found that most educators felt that the current students were more distracted than the previous ones. 87% of teachers agree with this result and believe that today's digital technology has caused this generation to focus for a short time; 64% of students believe that today's digital technology has little academic knowledge to help students, but it only gives them a better experience.

3. You can't remember much... (You cannot remember too many things)

Technology's tendency to butt into whatever else you're doing makes it more difficult to form new memories. as Nicolas Carr explains in the shallows, memory comes in two types: Transient working memory and long-term memory, which is more permanent. information needs to pass from working memory into long-term memory in order to be stored. any break in the processes of working memory-like, say, stopping to check your email or send a text message in the middle of reading an article-can erase information from your mind before that transfer occurs.

No matter what technology you are working on, you will always be involved, which makes it difficult for you to form new memories. Just as Nicholas Carr talked about how the Internet poisoned your brain, there are two types of memories: Temporary memory storage and long-term memory storage. Information must first become temporary memory before it can become long-term memory and be stored by the brain. Any interruption of temporary memory storage, such as stopping to check your email or reading text messages halfway through the Article, will be before your brain turns it into a long-term memory, erase the information from the brain.

There's also a limit to how much information your working memory can take in at once. taking in too much information-which happens a lot online-is like "having water poured into a glass continuously all day long, so whatever was there at the top has to spill out as the new water comes down, "producti?expert Tony Schwartz told The Huffington Post last year.

Productivity research expert Tony Schwartz said in an interview with the Huffington Post last year that your brain can receive a limited amount of temporary memories at a time. Receiving too much information at a time (this often happens when surfing the internet) is like "pouring water into a glass bottle continuously in a day, the above water overflows when new water comes in ".

4 .... So you're relying on the Internet to remember things for you (you're counting on the Internet)

People used to be able to retain really vast quantities of knowledge-like reciting entire novels, word for word-but technology has eliminated both the need and the drive to do so. when you know that Google or your smartphone can retain a piece of information for you, you're less likely to store it in menory, studies have shown. scientific American last year likened the Internet to an "external hard drive" for our brains, as we outsource an increasing amount of information to the Web.

People can remember a large amount of knowledge before, such as reciting a whole novel word by word-but technology makes us lose the need and motivation to do so. Some research shows that when you know that Google or your smartphone can write down information for you, you will not remember it yourself. Last year, Scientific America compared the Internet to the "external hard drive" of our brain, because we used to store massive amounts of information.

That's not the worst thing in the world, Scientific American adds. we 've always outsourced some of that information to external "hard drives" of sorts, relying on friends rather than technology to fill in the gaps in our knodge DGE. but these day we're "outsourcing" way more.

Scientific Americans also pointed out that this is not the worst thing. We have been using a variety of external "hard disks", such as relying on our friends rather than technology to fill the gaps in our knowledge. But now we are using this "External Storage" feature too much.

5. And you're much more forgetful than you used to be (you're more forgetful than before)

Millennials are actually more likely to forget what day it is or where they put their keys than people over the age of 55, according to a 2013 trending machine survey. in a press release for the survey, family and occupational therapist Patricia gutentag called out technology as one of the main culprits: "This is a population that has grown up multitasking using technology, often compounded by lack of sleep, all of which results in high levels of forgetfulness, "she said.

According to a survey in, "millennial" (a foreign term: Born in 2013, they were born almost simultaneously with computers and grew up with the Internet) people over 55 years old are more likely to forget what day is today or where they put their keys. In a press release in the survey, Patricia gutentag, a professional family therapist, calls technology one of the culprit. She said: "This generation of people often suffer from sleep insufficiency due to a high degree of forgetting ."

6. You can't concentrate on what you're re reading (You can't concentrate on what you're reading)

Even if you 've shunned all distractions, you still won't absorb information you read online as well as you wocould if you 'd read it in a book. and you can blame hypertext for that. those colorful little links scattered throughout online articles (including this one) make your brain work harder than it wowould otherwise, leaving less brain power to process what you're re reading. even just reading on screens, like a laptop or iPad-links or no links-has been shown to diminish comprehension.

Even if you have avoided all the interference factors, you still cannot digest the information you see on the Internet like reading a book. This is a hypertext offense. The small colored links in these online articles (including the article you are reading) will make your brain work harder, so there is no mental power to understand what you are reading. Even on screens, such as laptops and tablets-whether connected or not-can interfere with your understanding.

Research has shown that reading linked text "entails a lot of mental calisthenics-evaluating hyperlinks, deciding whether to click, adjusting to different formats-that are extraneous to the process of reading, "Carr wrote in" the shallows. "and giving your brain more work to do makes it harder to absorb information. text that's peppered with photos, videos and ADS is even worse.

Carr wrote in the book: The study showed that reading the link text "contains some mental movements-determining hyperlinks, deciding whether to click and adjust the format-these are irrelevant to reading ", this makes your brain too heavy to absorb information. The text of videos and advertisements is full of images.

7. You can't find your way around und without GPS (you can't find the path without GPS)

People who rely on GPS to get around have less activity in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in both memory and navigation, according to a series of studies presented in 2010. using spatial memory-which involves using visual cues to develop "cognitive maps" that remember routes-instead of operating on GPS-induced autopilot can help avert memory problems later in life, the studies found.

A series of studies in 2010 showed that those who rely on GPS navigation, their seahorse (areas in the brain that are related to memory and navigation) are less active than those who do not rely on GPS. The study found that using spatial memory instead of relying on GPS navigation can prevent memory problems in future life.

A 2008 study from the University of London even found that taxi drivers had more developed Hippocamp than non-taxi drivers-perhaps because they are so accustomed to navigating cities using spatial memory, rather than relying on GPS (though that may no longer be true of smartphone-equipped taxi drivers ).

In 2008, a university study in London even showed that taxi drivers were more advanced than non-taxi drivers, it may be because taxi drivers are used to recording their own routes rather than relying on GPS (this may not be the case for taxi drivers who use smart phones ).

8. You have the brain of a drug addict (you have an addict's brain)

No, "Internet addiction" isn' t just some BS term parents throw around to terrify youngsters who spend too much time playing Candy Crush. spending too much time on the Internet can be actually cause changes in the brain that mimic those caused by drug and alcohol dependence, according to a 2012 study.

No, "Internet addiction" is not just a BS term used by parents to scare kids who spend too much time playing "candy spree" (an online game. A study in 2012 showed that too many people on the Internet could change, just like drug addicts and drinkers.

Internet addicts-most notably gamers who shun food, school and sleep to play for days on end-have abnormal white and gray matter in their brains, which disrupts and cripples the regions involved in processing emotion and regulating attention and demo-- making. alcoholics and drug addicts have strikingly similar brain abnormalities, the study found.

Online drug addicts-especially players who have spent a few days or even failed to learn-the white matter and gray matter in the brain are abnormal, which makes it difficult for online drug addicts to express their emotions and adjust their attention, there will also be select phobia. Studies have shown similar abnormalities in the brains of drinkers and drug addicts.

"I have seen people who stopped attending university lectures, failed their degrees or their marriages broke down" because of Internet gaming addiction, dr. henriette Bowden Jones, who runs a briish clinic for Internet addicts, told the independent.

Dr Henriette Bowden Jones, who runs a British clinic that treats internet addiction, told the independent paper, "I have seen some people no longer taking university courses, cannot get a degree or break up a marriage ", the reason is the addiction to online games.

Now that you're properly terrified of the effects of technology on the old noggin, let us remind you That youDoHave the power to prevent brain drain and time-suck. Just log off every once in a while!

I believe you have been intimidated by these dangers. You must avoid wasting your mind and time. Log off your computer from time to time. (Huffingtonpost Translation: Peach @ egg net)