The internet is rewiring my brain.

[bob]

I've noticed that over the past 5 or 6 years that my brain doesn't work the way it used to. It started small; i would have a bit of trouble concentrating, or remembering things that usually i would know. But then i noticed that quite a few things in my life were different.

 

I've noticed that i can't concentrate on my work for much longer than 10-20 mins at a time, and i have a lot of trouble in focusing on more than one task at a time. Even when i am working, i bounce around doing lots of little tasks, forgetting which one i'm supposed to be focussing on etc.

 

I've also noticed that i'm having trouble following complicated plotlines in films (and TV shows).....maybe i'm just getting old, but occasionally i see a plot point, or a subtle shot of something, and my brain just doesn't associate it with what i'm supposed to any more. Whereas before i would spot something and know that it was a reference to something a couple of episodes back - now i just stare blankly and have to have my girlfriend remind me.

 

Now i'm not sure what is happening to me - whether it is a change of diet, or lifestyle or something, but i read an article a while back about how the use of the internet, and Google in particular has begun to re-wire our brains.

 

The article mentioned how, like the invention of writing meant that our memories rewired themselves so that we didn't have to remember so much, the invention of the world wide web is causing some people to significantly change the way they think.

 

People aren't remembering things when they can just look them up, since Google is often only a click away for most people. It's not to say people are getting stupider, but people are augmenting their brains with the internet, and using it as an extension or database to make their decisions with.

 

Having said that, i'm a bit worried that i am getting stupider, or at least getting worse at my job because of it.

 

Does anyone else experience this?

 

Here's an article explaining it better than i just did:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/20/internet-altering-your-mind

 

Sorry for the rambling - my mind wandered off many times while writing this...

[Murr]

I think I've read that article before actually dude, But I can agree with the fact I'm becoming dumber due to the internet.

 

At college I could build websites, code in Pascal, create databases very easily. During the start of my current job I would take alot in, new systems, new installs, upgrades etc...

 

But now... very reliant on the google for alot of stuff. Annoyingly it's usually on the very easy parts of my job that I need a reminder.

 

Heck just this morning I had to check the correct syntax to add permissions for a user on MySQL. Something that i've done frequently throughout my job. ( I actually blame having a 4 day weekend too in honesty).

 

 

Not getting the problem with watching TV or films, or gaming... but work very much so.

 

 

How I see myself in a few years -

[Serebii]

I still retain knowledge, but before I go and say it, I do google to double check I'm right, just so that I don't seem like an idiot.

 

It is true though, many people will not bother retaining general knowledge with everything easily accessible...but there is a problem with that. Despite the internet being the repository of all knowledge, it also has inaccuracies and lies so people read that on the Internet, assume it's real, and when they share that knowledge, it goes screwy

[dwarf]

I hate myself for my Internet addiction.

 

There is a Ted Talks by Philip Zimbardo about the technological rewiring of our brains but I can't find it. Being a psychologist he does talk a lot of shit but some of it makes sense.

[Agent Gibbs]

I'm not quite that bad yet, but i do check things on google as my first port of call when really i could just actually try and use my memory and get the answer

 

its a worrying trend eitherway, because i certainly have the multitasking attention span now, i constantly have to watch tv and play on a game console, my phone or the internet at the same time, its like one thing alone can't keep my attention, or atleast when i have that option to multitask i must do it, when i go somewhere where my choices are limited e.g the cinema it doesn't even cross my mind to play with something else

 

maybe the problem is too much choice and it being too readily avaliable

[Daft]

It's natural that we adapt to the world around us. Retaining specific knowledge has become unnecessary in a world where most people carry around a device that can retrieve information so easily. We're all becoming cyborgs. It's why critical thinking is more important than ever, it's a shame the education system (hell, most people) probably won't realise this for a good long while.

 

My brain has turned into a sponge; in school I couldn't retain the rigid linear structures of teaching but with nodes of knowledge existing within their own web of knowledge on the internet - well, it's intoxicating. I hunger to know more about everything.

 

It's a fucking wonderful age to live and learn in. I don't think a lot of people appreciate how rewarding learning shit is.

 

Richard Feynman said it best,

 

“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”

[Diageo]

I think the internet is obviously making us smarter. Beforehand, you would have to rely on TV news and library books to get your information. Now, you can easily look up almost anything and get an answer in an instant. It leads to much less blind conjecture and much more revision of evidence, which is what decisions should be based on.

 

Our brains receive pleasure when gaining a bit of interesting information, and so we seek it more and more. However, with social media, people tend to seek information on their friends or celebrities, but it can easily be channelled to interesting scientific videos on youtube, Ted Talks, Wikipedia surfing, and general googling.

 

I say people were more able to remember certain things in the past because it was so difficult to attain. If you have to keep going back to the library to remember something it's going to stick in your mind much longer than looking it up online. While this might mean that we forget this information quicker, it also means that you can finish your tasks quicker and easier.

[bob]

Well i think that's what i was getting at. If i need a fact (that perhaps i would have remembered 5 or 6 years ago) i can search and access it within seconds. However, it's what this activity is doing to my brain in other areas that i'm worried about.

 

I can't follow plots, i struggle to remember the right word for things (although my dad has this problem, so perhaps this one is hereditary), i have trouble working with large, over-arching projects. I do worry that when i'm away from the internet, i am much stupider than i was....

 

Interestingly, it does coincide with me starting to drink alcohol too (i was tee-total until 21-22-ish), so maybe i've just killed too many brain-cells that way....

[Diageo]

Well i think that's what i was getting at. If i need a fact (that perhaps i would have remembered 5 or 6 years ago) i can search and access it within seconds. However, it's what this activity is doing to my brain in other areas that i'm worried about.

 

I can't follow plots, i struggle to remember the right word for things (although my dad has this problem, so perhaps this one is hereditary), i have trouble working with large, over-arching projects. I do worry that when i'm away from the internet, i am much stupider than i was....

 

Interestingly, it does coincide with me starting to drink alcohol too (i was tee-total until 21-22-ish), so maybe i've just killed too many brain-cells that way....

Would you really have remembered it years ago? Or would you just have gone, "Ah I don't care." and left it?

 

What kind of things are you talking about? Maths questions can be remembered by trying to work through the problem through trial and error for a significant period of time before looking at the answer and then working through it again afterwards.

 

General trivia can be remembered by increasing the difficulty to find the information and going to the library. Or just trying harder to remember something before giving up to google.

 

It's about the effort you put in. Want to remember more, put more effort in.

[EEVILMURRAY]

I find myself having to constantly check how I did things in the past. For example I'm uploading a new article on my site and I'm having to check how I did the title so it looks uniform with the others. I've had to keep doing this several times. I thought I'd be able to remember it by now.

 

EDIT: and now how I hotlink things at the end of my articles... It's fucking annoying.

Edited May 7, 2013 by EEVILMURRAY

[Guy]

I wanted to make a thread like this before, but I forgot to do it. STUPID MEMORY.

 

The Internet is a vast information resource just waiting to be exploited for both good and bad. It's absolutely terrifying to acknowledge this, but I don't actually know where I'd be in life right now without the Internet. If anything, I think we can all agree it has made us a LOT lazier and a lot better at proving our points during petty arguments.

[Jon]

There is the internet and then there's Wikipedia.

 

 

I'm a 'Pedia whore. Spend so much time on there, it's my second home.

[MoogleViper]

Not getting as smart, or no longer have the time to learn as much? Getting dumber, or just getting older?

 

If it bothers you that much, change it. I personally hate people who are constantly on their smart phone, constantly checking facebook, validating on wikipaedia. There's a beautiful world out there, to discover, view, learn about. Wonderful people to engage with, and you spend your life staring at a 3 inch glowing screen.

 

I'm a 'Pedia whore.

 

Careful, that has some dangerous potential for a typo.

[bob]

Not getting as smart, or no longer have the time to learn as much? Getting dumber, or just getting older?

 

If it bothers you that much, change it. I personally hate people who are constantly on their smart phone, constantly checking facebook, validating on wikipaedia. There's a beautiful world out there, to discover, view, learn about. Wonderful people to engage with, and you spend your life staring at a 3 inch glowing screen.

 

 

Well possibly, but when i spend 9 hours a day in front of my laptop at work, its hard not to just quickly open a tab and check facebook etc, which is where my concentration problems are coming from.

 

I'd love to stop it, but it's like an addiction i suppose.

[Diageo]

If you're getting so forgetful, do you really want to trust your memory of how forgetful you were in the past compared to now?

[Rummy]

Tbh I've wondered this sometimes, but I think it's just age. It might be happening faster now, but my parents get constantly suckier at remembering things, and have always done the 'just wait til you get to my age!' thing, and it seems...I am getting there. The internet/lack of effort to learn things might not help, but then again - is it so bad if I forget more things simply because I know more things? Like Daft, I didn't feel such a thirst for knowledge when forced to learn it in the school's structures, but once I finished school I found I really actually wanted to know all sorts of things - the internet has helped me learn a lot that I probably wouldn't otherwise, but it's also made me lazier in my learning and possibly overloaded too.

[bob]

This video explains some of it quite well actually:

[nightwolf]

Honestly, if anything, the internet has made me more intelligent.

 

I spend a lot of time reading articles, reading up on things that before hand would have taken a lot of effort to do so (library etc), so now I am able to recite more information about things, more so than I could have done at school.

 

I find that my memory hasn't slipped, but then I have always been very into lists and keep these around with me anyway, so perhaps relying on pen and paper rather than the internet is why this hasn't been the case.

 

I do however, have the lack of concentration, I've had that since I started using the internet, whether it was already there and using the net made it more obvious, I'm not sure. But I cannot concentrate without using Spotify as background music or without a video on YouTube.

 

I now have also replaced regular TV for the internet, using my XBOX as my media source. I find its pretty much improved my life for the better because its so much easier for me to research and do things! It all depends how you use it I suppose.

 

But let's not also forget that whilst I have also these good things, I still spend a vast amount of time on Reddit, but then my parents sit and watch TV the same amount, is it really any different?!

[bob]

So today i tried to have a whole day at work with no internet, to see if i noticed any difference.

 

I stopped at 9am, and allowed myself a brief peek for 15 mins at 12.45, but other than that i managed to last the whole day without checking Facebook, Reddit, Here, etc. It was pretty damn hard seeing as i'm sitting in front of my laptop for 8 hours a day, but i did feel that i was able to concentrate on my work for a lot longer and my mind didn't wander off nearly as much. I'm hoping to try it again tomorrow and then hopefully the effect will get better as i go on.

[Jonnas]

I think the internet has made me much, much more knowledgeable than before. There's more incentive to find new information that happens to be linked to something else we like (for example, if a film we particularly liked is inspired by Greek literature, we are more likely to find this out and explore it)

 

However, it is also very shiny, and I'm now prone to be distracted by the multitude of interesting things it has to offer. It's like watching a movie while doing your taxes, or installing a bouncy castle near your office, impossible to concentrate.

 

Like bob just showed us, some willpower is in order.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I've been wondering this a lot since I first heard about the phenomenon due to my concentration plummetting lately. I get distracted so easily when doing work, it probably takes me twice as long as it needs to. Though I suspect there are other factors playing in there as well, stress being one of them; I've noticed that when I'm stressed, my concentration decreases exponentially, and at uni, well, there's always something to be stressed about. I'd argue the most valuable lessons I'm learning at uni are about handling stress and life in general.

 

Anyway, if the internet has played a role in that, it's the only downside to it, though. I've learnt so much from the internet, and I'd also say I've become quite a lot more intelligent by following discussions and just reading about stuff like logic, science, philosophy etc. I'm just incredibly fascinated by the world, I love learning stuff. I've also always had a great memory, especially for recitation, though I do suspect being able to quickly look up conjugations and declensions is hindering my memorisation of Latin and Greek somewhat.

[MoogleViper]

So today i tried to have a whole day at work with no internet, to see if i noticed any difference.

 

I stopped at 9am, and allowed myself a brief peek for 15 mins at 12.45, but other than that i managed to last the whole day without checking Facebook, Reddit, Here, etc. It was pretty damn hard seeing as i'm sitting in front of my laptop for 8 hours a day, but i did feel that i was able to concentrate on my work for a lot longer and my mind didn't wander off nearly as much. I'm hoping to try it again tomorrow and then hopefully the effect will get better as i go on.

 

One day? Most days I don't go on the internet at work (other than for work related stuff).

[bob]

Well i can go weeks without injecting myself with Heroin, but i'm sure there are people who can't.

 

I don't know where you work, but it's a lot harder not to mess around when there's no-one to check up on you...you kind of get addicted.

[MoogleViper]

Well i can go weeks without injecting myself with Heroin, but i'm sure there are people who can't.

 

I don't know where you work, but it's a lot harder not to mess around when there's no-one to check up on you...you kind of get addicted.

 

Yeah I'm surrounded by people in a fairly open office, sat right next to the walkway.

 

If I had more privacy, I'd probably mess around on the internet a lot more.

[Diageo]