The internet can be an excellent, helpful tool, but is it killing our brains and training them not to think for themselves but to rely on a machine to find the answer? People use the internet for a variety of uses. Some use it for online shopping; others may use it to read the news; while others may use it for fun and access social media or gambling websites. The point is, whatever anyone wants, they can usually get it in one form or another on the internet. But, is this reliance on technology making us less likely to try and think for ourselves when looking to solve a problem, rather than just hop online?
It’s a divided argument. While many experts say yes, the internet is making us and our children lazy in thinking and problem solving; others say that having the internet at hand is not a hindrance. This is because the brain still needs to process the information that has in front of it and that includes anything we are reading on the internet. Some are concerned that the internet gives a sense of information overload and that our brains are at risk of taking too much information in, but this is unlikely. Our brains are constantly processing information, and as part of that process, it evaluates what information is deemed to be important enough to hang on to and what it can forget.
Another question that some people ask is whether the internet affects their ability to focus on one thing as there is so much going on at once on there. But, to be fair, the internet is no more of a distraction than the everyday goings-on of today’s life. One area that does have an effect in how we as humans develop is our social interactions with other people and it’s through the use of the internet that this is now made even easier. Social media and chat sites allow people to interact even if they are in another room, town, or country and gives us that interaction we yearn for literally at the touch of a button.
Article Via Dean Burnett; Dean Burnett’s first book, The Idiot Brain, all about the weird and confusing properties of the brain, is available now.
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