We increasingly rely on social media to talk to friends, GPS to navigate and the web for information. But, asks Jo Carlowe, is that wise?
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...
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This story is from the February 2017 edition of BBC Knowledge.
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