Over the past few years I’ve read countless articles about how the internet is having a negative effect on our lives; interactions with people are becoming faceless, addictive behaviour is being cultivated, we’re turning into narcissists, the list could go on and on.
But the focus is usually on the way that we interact with others or our perceptions of ourselves - we rarely learn that the internet is having an adverse physical effect on us. However, an article by John Naughton from The Observer, "The Internet: Is It Changing the Way we Think?" explores exactly that.
Naughton presented the views of writer Nicholas Carr, who basically claimed that our use of the internet is changing the way we think and, ultimately, the way our brains are structured.
He claims that we think differently now that the internet has become such an integral part of our lives. Access to such an unprecedented amount of information means we cannot concentrate for long periods of time and instead flick between websites and social networks, looking at many different types of information but never delving deeply.
It sounded a bit absurd to me, so I did some of this ‘shallow information gathering’ Carr talks of and researched the brain. Never really being one for the sciences, I had no clue that our thought processes can physically alter our brains. Parts of it can be changed, parts of it can be rebuilt and parts of it can be made redundant. The brain is a fascinating thing. The complexities of how it works are still not defined, but Carr’s argument is that we’re radically altering how our brain makes connections.
Like any other dramatic claim, I was left wondering whether this was another of those wild assertions written by the sensationalists who claim that technology is ultimately bringing about the apocalypse and giving us all cancer.
But I have to admit I did empathise with the way Carr explains his dwindling concentration:
“I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn't going – so far as I can tell – but it's changing. I'm not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I'm reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.
"My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument and I'd spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That's rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I'm always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."
Does that quote ring true for anyone else?
Without a brain scan or a PhD in neurosciences I can’t be certain, but I’m sure something has happened to the way I process information, to the way I learn and to the way that I think.
For me, the biggest problem with the internet comes with the ability to be the most incredible procrastinator. Social networks are blocked at my current job, but I often find myself reading about communism, the history of Haiti, poisonous plants and how to survive a bear attack. Arguably this knowledge might be more beneficial than an afternoon on Facebook, but it’s still not what I was meant to be doing.
However, no one is going to be closing down the internet because a few of us feel there’s a growing procrastination epidemic. We need to understand that we’ve changed and look to what we can do about it - if anything.
The idea that emerging technology could change the way that we think isn’t new. I’m sure when the abacus, the printing press or the calculator were invented, we started to process information in a different way. These are tools that have dramatically changed our world for the better, like the internet.
After all, we did create this amazing place. The next step in our evolution should be to help our brains become more accustomed to living life online.
But I can’t seem to escape the fact that my procrastination and short attention span are problematic. When I have a bad case of it, I feel like a small child. With ADHD. Who just. Can’t. Con. Cen. Trate. Or sit still. Always moving. Always wondering. Always worrying. Constantly on. Constantly in information. Overload.
So should we embrace this change or try to force our brains back to how they were?
I’ve read a few arguments from those that claim the internet can’t be good as it renders our ability to memorise vast chunks of information obsolete. But, why do I need to memorise the 29 times table when Google can give it to me in a colourful and accessible format in less than 0.002 seconds?
It’s important that we still take time to read and think for ourselves, otherwise the younger generation who have grown up with Google will know no other way of thinking. Who knows what will happen to them if large parts of their brain lie redundant.
However, the brain is a clever thing. Colin Blakemore, a neurobiologist at the University of Oxford, suggests:
"Our brains are so remarkably adept at putting unused neurons and virgin synaptic connections to other uses.”
So maybe this change should be seen as what it is – an inevitable evolution. And who knows what we might be able to do with that redundant part of our brains that Blakemore suggests could now have new purposes….
Image via Neha Tiwari