Is Technology Transforming our Brains?

By Colin McGregor

Our use of technology can play an important role in how we form a relationship with ourselves. We can sometimes notice that our neck starts to hurt when we’re leaning over some app. Sometimes we can feel weird after having seen a friend’s Instagram posting. We often miss noticing the effects of technology on our bodies and our brains.

Cellphones, video games and Facebook keep us glued to our screens. This severely reduces how much exercise we get. A modern school can be a place where the obese kids outnumber the thin, athletic kids.

The use of technology can create structural changes in our brain. All those alerts, alarms and notifications can cause permanent attention deficit issues, diminishing academic and professional performance.

Researchers in France and the U.K. have discovered that frequent multitasking can contribute to a reduction in the gray matter in a part of the brain where attention control resides (Loh & Kanai 2014). This study revealed that the individuals who consumed multiple forms of media at the same time obtained less good results on cognitive control tasks, and presented more socio-emotional difficulties.

According to McGill University researchers, prolonged use of GPS probably reduces the density of gray matter in the brain. This reduction is accompanied by diverse symptoms, including: a higher risk of depression and other psychopathologies, as well as certain forms of dementia.

Reading a map can be tricky. But performing tough mental operations is good for the brain, since it engages the cognitive process and cerebral structures that have other effects on brain function. People who have used GPS for a long time have altered spatial memory capacities, according to the British newspaper The Guardian.

According to a study by Professor Oliver Hardt and his McGill colleagues, the less you use your brain, the more you use systems that are responsible for complicated things like episodic memories or cognitive flexibility. Which means you are more likely to contract dementia (Decay Happens: the role of active forgetting in memory. Oliver Hardt, Karim Nader and Lynn Nadel, 2013).  

According to Professor Hardt, anyone who continues to learn new things and challenge their mind seems to have this protective effect against dementia.

Also known as “digital amnesia,” the Google Effect is the tendency to forget information that is easily accessible through research engines. We don’t make the effort to conserve that information in our memory, since it’s easily accessible on line.

You read a book and stumble on an unknown word. Google rapidly gives you its definition. A few days later, you run into the same word, but you can’t remember what it means.

Before the digital age, we had to keep important phone numbers in mind and read maps to get around. These were two mind skills that everyone had to master. At school, we were made to memorize long poems and Shakespeare speeches to enlarge our memory.

Though we sometimes argue that Google is an efficient way for us to organize the information we memorize, it makes us very dependent on the digital world. If you break or lose your telephone you could be in serious trouble.

Furthermore, the use of technology may cause you to lose sleep. Numerous people fall aslpee with their phone in hand, checking their emails one last time or surfing the web. Before you know it, you’ve sacrificed several hours of sleep.

Even after hanging up your phone, the blue light your eyes absorb from the screen can disturb the sleep process. Exposure to blue light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that helps put us to sleep. Blue light keeps us awake. Reduced sleep can lead to psychiatric problems like anxiety and depression. A lack of sleep is also linked to weaker overall brain activity. According to Harvard Medical School, research shows that it can contribute to cancer, diabetes, cardiac ailments and obesity.

We should exercise and do crossword puzzles to have a good night’s sleep. Let technology go for just a little while, according to our McGill researchers!  

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