What Technology Does to Your Brain:
If you read the first part of this website, then you know how much technology is used on a daily basis. All that screen-time is affecting your brain, in more ways than one. And yes, there is a video to your left about this.
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First off, how much do you know about the brain? Honestly, I don't know that much, but these are the basics of it: The brain has more than 100 billion neurons firing every moment in your lives. Your brain controls everything you do, with you knowing or without you knowing. Knowing that, you probably can tell that if something happens to your brain, there can be really bad consequences. Those problems are brain disorders, some of them are Alzheimer's Disease, Dementia, Huntington
disease, Meningitis, Aphasia and many more. The Huntington Disease -for example- is a brain disorder that uncontrolled movements, emotional problems, and loss of thinking ability. That sounds bad, doesn't it? And that's caused by only one defective gene. ONE! Moving on!
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You probably heard of computers and other similar things referred to as a 'blue-screen device', right? Even if you haven't, I'll tell you, these 'blue-screens' actually emit something called blue light (HEV(high energy visible)). The name makes sense now, doesn't it? Blue light is a light that is also produced by the sun. It's energy level is in between Ultra-Violet rays and the red, yellow and green light. But this light isn't that good for you. The affects are
shown in the "Technology and your Body" page. The first way that blue light affects you is that it affects you sleep cycle. Blue light can trick your brain into thinking that it's daytime. Obviously if your brain thinks it's daytime, then you can't sleep because in the day, you're awake! Moving on! We're going to cover some different sub-topics now!
DID YOU KNOW? Blue light is what makes the sky look blue!
See, even boxes can be friends!
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Memory
You can become forgetful with the use of technology. When you place all the things you can remember into technology (like google keep, calender, ext.) to the point where we have out sourced them. We constantly push information out so that you can deal with the information that comes in, but when it gets overloaded, we can become forgetful. Also, research shows that people that use tech normally have twice as much activity in the prefrontal cortex then people that use it less. “Are we becoming knee-jerk shallow thinkers or does the Internet actually sharpen our ability to scan information rapidly and efficiently?” writes Dr. Andi Horvath, author of "How does technology affect our brains?". But it's obviously normal to forget, so you shouldn't try to be a perfect memory machine.
​ 2. Who are you?
Comparing yourself with others on the internet can make you lose your true self, replacing your image with an ideal person. It can even make you vain. Can you relate? Even if you can't, that's a sad truth about technology.
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But what happens to you, at a young age? I mean if you use a lot of technology. I bet you heard that exposing children to the digital world when they're young is bad. Yes, it may be true. But if you do, what can happen? And yes, technology also rewires your brain. Let's have reading as an example of a non-electronic activity. Reading is an activity that involves focus, memory, and imagination. So you can't really rely on anything but yourself to comprehend everything. Television and such are things that do not need focus, memory or imagination. Listening only is a different matter. Sure you might want to remember this and that when watching a movie so you can predict ahead, but you don't really need to remember anything. Getting information online exposes you to distractions and you don’t easily focus for a long time. Reading however, makes you focus directly, and it doesn’t give you as many distractions, considering you usually read in a quiet and peaceful environment. Please don't leave me yet, 'cause there's more!
Sadly enough, using a lot of technology in your youth can make it harder to make friends. This is because when you're young, your frontal lobe develops the most. The frontal lobe is responsible for understanding all the social interactions that happens between humans to make friends. But not only that, electronic addicts ​​show similar changes in those of a drug/alcohol addict. That's already bad itself, isn't it? Social media isn't much help either. People who are constantly comparing the achievements of others are more prone to negative emotions such as jealousy. And it can actually make you feel and be a more jealous person, and lonely. Lastly, the internet can actually increase suicide or self-harm for certain teens. Certain teenagers meaning those who are planning to do it, or those who are vulnerable. Either way, it's sad!
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Reading is better to:
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gather info (since research proves that those people who read random stuff showed more understanding/comprehension in general.)
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Improves reflection
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critical thinking
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problem solving
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vocabulary
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Technology reading doesn’t show as much of this. So far technology seems pretty bad, right? Well, it isn’t. Technology use can improve
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visual-spatial capabilities
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increases attentional ability
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reaction times
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the capacity to identify details among clutter.
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Basically, you just shouldn't use to much technology. It can be good for your brain, but only if you use it correctly. Be careful!
Citations / Sources:
“How Does Technology Affect Our Brains?” Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, 3 Aug. 2015, mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/news-and-events/news-archive/how-does-technology-affect-our-brains
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Howard, Jacqueline. “FREAKY: Five Ways The Internet Is Rewiring Your Brain.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/shocking-ways-internet-rewires-brain_n_4136942.html