What did citizen do with their time 20 years ago? How did we ever manage without personal computers, the Internet, cell phones, iPods and 24 hour cable news? The technological landscape is vastly dissimilar these days and scientist are wondering just what that means for our brains.
According to research done last year by Ucla scientist Dr. Gary Small, daily doses of technology may be altering the way the brain functions, particularly in collective skills. He suggests that all that screen time may weaken the brain circuits complex in face-to-face interactions. He is concerned that basal collective skills like reading facial expressions during a conversation are being compromised.
Retirement Homes San Antonio Tx
Small is particularly concerned about what he calls the digital native, those in their twenties and younger who have been "digitally hard-wired since toddlerhood." As he explained in an linked Press article, the digital native runs the risk of being socially awkward and isolated by their inability to explain non-verbal messages from people. He is afraid this may be particularly true in the classroom that still relies on former verbal education along with interaction with the instructor and other students.
Small argues his case in his book "iBrain: Surviving the Technological Altercation of the contemporary Mind." He admits that his research about either or not all this technology is changing brain circuitry is new and ongoing.
Other studies, in fact, have taken the opposite tact by looking inescapable outcomes for technology users. A MacArthur Foundation study found that teens feel very linked to each other through online collective networking. The study allayed some parents' fears that teenagers are vulnerable to online predators the more time they spend socially on the Internet. "The study found that most teenagers steer clear of dangerous sites and use the Web only for research or to characterize with established friends," agreeing to an record in the Austin-American Statesman.
Parents who are too protective and prohibit computer use for their teens may be holding their kids out of the broader collective loop. The study found that teenagers move in the middle of the online collective world and the face-to-face interactions with relative ease, one construction on the other.
Dr. Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University thinks technology may even work on how citizen learn to read. Technology requires users to obtain information quickly, rather than the more methodical and sophisticated methods of comprehending regular reading material. She is learning if this rapid information conferrence could be changing the general brain pathways formed when reading. She is particularly inviting about the work on on young children as technology becomes a more integral component of contemporary classrooms.
As with any new information technology, like 50 years ago with the inclusion of television to the average American home, there will be curiosity and controversy. It is positively hard to fantasize how our brains waited for the morning paper or the evening news to hear what was going on in the world around us. It seems like each generation has a quicker learning curve when it comes to the newest technology. That could just be human nature, or it could be the circuitry of the brain changing and adapting to the technologically saturated world in which we live.
This is Your Brain on Technology - The supervene of Technology on communal Interaction
No comments:
Post a Comment