Nearly the entire wealth of human knowledge can live at our fingertips or even in our pockets. Such an amazing feat, of course, doesn’t happen without impacting our lives, and scientists have begun to note that the Internet has not only served to fulfill our brains’ curiosities, but also rewired them. So what exactly is the Internet doing to our brains?
- The Internet is our external hard drive
- Children are learning differently
- We hardly ever give tasks our full attention
- We don’t bother to remember
- We’re getting better at finding information
- Difficult questions make us think about computers
- IQ is increasing over time
- Our concentration is suffering
- We’re getting better at determining relevance
- We’re becoming physically addicted to technology
- The more you use the internet the more it lights up your brain
- Our brains constantly seek out new information
- We’ve become power browsers
- Online thinking persists even offline
- Creative thinking may suffer
Still curious? Read Nicolas Carr’s excellent book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
