Digital technologies are changing our world… in good ways… and bad.
An excerpt from the current article
When was the last time you memorized someone’s phone number? You may think- ‘What a waste of time? Why would I remember a telephone number, when I have it stored in my phone’s memory?’ Exactly. Those phone numbers and everything else we need- we have them all stored in our phones.
We rely on our phones and on digital media for even basic living skills like finding our way to a friend’s house. We set reminders to remind us of our routine tasks. Excessive use of digital technologies (mobile phones, digital notepads, computers, etc.) has made us excessively dependent on them. While digital technologies are good, our dependency on them is not. This dependency is affecting our brains as we are not training or committing our brains to store any information which is readily available online or offline on our phones or computers.
Knowingly or unknowingly, we are currently using digital technologies in some way or the other, like an app or an extension of our brain. We might have improved our multitasking abilities with the aid of technology, but we certainly have become less focused. The ‘so-far’ most adverse effect is on our memory and intellect. Our brains are designed to process, encode, and store information, but as we are increasingly becoming tech-savvy, most of us are not utilizing our brains to their full capacity. Scientists believe that our reliance on digital technologies and the internet is affecting our ‘cognitive memory’. As a result, we are less likely to remember things that we believe can be easily found online using search engines such as Google. They even have a name for this phenomenon. It’s called ‘the google effect’ or ‘digital amnesia’ (‘amnesia’= medical term for ‘the loss of memories’). Particularly for the younger generation, this could prevent the building-up of long-term memories. But, in this modern era, we can’t stop reaping the benefits of digital technologies. Can we?
Luckily, there are ways in which we can keep our brains fit in this digital world.
- Eat good food that nourishes your brain
- Exercise regularly to boost your brain function
- Get enough sleep to rejuvenate your brain cells
- Get social in the real world, not just in the virtual world
- Relax, meditate, de-stress, do some yoga, pursue some hobby
- Stimulate your brain by music, traveling, reading, volunteering, and learning new things
- Challenge your brain by playing puzzles and brain games
- Don’t let the bad effects of digital technology overpower its goodness
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- Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips
- Smartphones and Cognition: A Review of Research Exploring the Links between Mobile Technology Habits and Cognitive Functioning
- Short-term Internet search using makes people rely on search engines when facing unknown issues
- Has your smartphone replaced your brain? Construction and validation of the Extended Mind Questionnaire (XMQ)
Learning With Fun
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