These days, in the midst of tweets and short blogs, mostly short on depth of analysis or facts, I love a good meaty article backed up by some research. And here’s one on what the internet is doing to our brains. Before you stop reading, what I love about this article is that it doesn’t actually take a position that the internet is ruining us or alternatively, catapulting our evolution forward. It just talks through how our brains seem to be changing and what some of the pros and cons of it are.
Take a read for yourself; here are a few key takeaways that got me thinking:
- Contrary to popular mindset today, heavy multi-taskers are actually worse at filtering out irrelevant distractions, ignoring irrelevant memories and switching from one task to another
- Our brains are much better trained to locate information than they are to remember it – and the way we use computers is improving those abilities
- Internet or computer use can help “exercise” the brain of an older person, but it can impair the learning of a developing (younger person’s) brain
