Is Technology Changing Our Brains?

We increasingly rely on social media to talk to friends, GPS to navigate and the web for information. But is that wise?

- Jo Carlowe

Google 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 Earth Magazine 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…

Attention