We increasingly rely
on social media to talk
to friends, GPS to
navigate and the web
for information.
But, asks Jo Carlowe,
is that wise?
Is technology
changing our
brains?
G
OOGLE is making you stupid, your iPhone’s making you fickle
and your social networks are making you anti-social.
If the newspaper headlines are to be believed, our brains are
under attack. Modern technology is pummeling each of us into
a cognitive wreck, and, if we aren’t careful, we’ll be beaten into
a stupor. Of course, the real story isn’t as clear-cut as all that. But
stories persist because the sense that something is eroding our mental
abilities feels right. We struggle to remember our own phone
number, when, only a few years ago we could recall dozens.
Online, readers prefer short, simple stories to long, nuanced pieces
(although we’re sure BBC Knowledge readers are the exception),
and we all know someone who breaks out in a sweat when separated
from their smartphone.
So what’s really happening? The first thing to consider is that
this kind of ‘neuro-anxiety’ about the tools we use is nothing new.
In 370 BC, Plato warned that the Greeks’ “trust in writing” would
“discourage the use of their own memory”. Sound familiar?
The reality is that our brains do change when we use
a smartphone or computer – but they also change when we use
a pen, a screwdriver, or any other tool for that matter. They change
when we mow the lawn, play golf or cook dinner. Our experiences
continually shape the way the brain works. So the question isn’t really
“is tech rewiring our brains?’ but ‘how are our brains adapting to
living in today’s screen-first, always-online, networked world?”
Scientifically speaking, we’re a long way from definitive answers,
but we looked at the latest research and talked to leading experts
in their fields to discover how they think our collective brains are
being affected... February 2017 41