1.
It's Shortening Our Attention Spans
People have been worried about the Internet's effect on concentration for years, and according
to a 2015 study, those fears of becoming "digital goldfish" may have finally been realized.
The average goldfish famously has an attention span of approximately 9 seconds, but humans
had an attention span of 12 seconds - until 2000, when it suddenly dropped to 8 seconds.
Researchers have traced that startling change back to the advent of the mobile phone.
There seems to be a generational divide when it comes to attention spans, too.
Nearly 80% of 18-24 year olds surveyed admitted to picking up their smartphone "when nothing
is occupying [their] attention," compared to only 10% of people over 65.
2.
It's Trapping Us In A State Of Perpetual Distraction How often do you check your phone?
A 2016 study found that the average smartphone user checks their phone over 2,600 times a
day.
That adds up to a million times per year, and that number is likely to keep increasing
as people become ever more dependent on their devices.
In a 2015 interview, Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing
To Our Brains, described this addictive habit as, "a state of perpetual distraction and
constant disruption," the price people pay for having "unlimited information at our fingertips."
"If you exist in a perpetual state of distractedness," Carr warns, "you'll never tap into the deepest
sources of human insight and creativity."
3.
It's Making Our Long-Term Memory Worse
Constant browsing, scrolling, and clicking can potentially impact a person's ability
to retain and remember information.
"[Moving] information from your conscious mind (what's known as the working memory)
into your long-term memory requires a process of memory consolidation that hinges on attentiveness,"
Nicholas Carr explains.
"If you're constantly distracted and taking in new information, you're essentially pushing
information into and out of your conscious mind.
You're not attending to it in a way that is necessary for the rich consolidation of
memory."
Carr's thoughts were backed up by a 2011 study published by Scientific American.
Researchers noted how subjects remembered less information, since they knew they could
easily Google it later.
In other words, access to the Internet can encourage a lazy mind.
4.
It's Making Us Feel More Connected And Totally Alone At Once
In terms of socialization, the Internet can make users feel more connected to each other
than ever before - and also more alienated from each other than ever before.
As Professor Fritz Nordengren observes: "At first glance, having many friends or contacts
on social networks implies a great sense of connectedness.
However, you likely have experienced the downside of electronic social circles, such as the
recent party or lunch where other guests were staring into their digital devices and tapping
messages to others.
The connectedness of one-on-one conversations may be lost to the digital connectedness."
Studies suggest that "the more time people spend on the Internet, the less they interact
with family and friends physically and over the phone, the smaller their social circles
become, and the more they feel depressed."
5.
It's Turning Us Less Empathetic Twitter beefs.
Trolls.
Cyber bullies.
Pretty much every YouTube video comment section.
Though there is data to back this theory up, you only have to spend a few hours on the
Internet to see for yourself how it often taps into the darker side of humanity.
But according to Nicholas Carr, it may also be responsible for exacerbating or even causing
this continuing polarization: "I think there are some indications that this
kind of culture of constant distraction and interruption undermines not only the attentiveness
that leads to deep thoughts, but also the attentiveness that leads to deep connections
with other people.
One study I mentioned in the book [The Shallows] seemed to show that the more distracted you
are - the more your train of thought is interrupted - the less able you are to experience empathy."
6.
It Might Be Making Us Smarter...
Or Dumber The human brain is neuroplastic, a term that
refers to "the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout
life."
In other words, brains physically change and adapt.
That malleability can have both positive and negative results.
Nicholas Carr thinks it's dangerous to assume that any change to a brain is always a change
for the better: "A lot of people will assume that if our brains can adapt, then our brains
will adapt to the flow of information and all will be well.
But what you have to understand about neuroplasticity is that the process of adaptation doesn't
necessarily leave you a better thinker.
It may leave you a more shallow thinker... we might get smarter or we might get dumber,
we're just adapting to the environment."
Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think, offers a slightly more optimistic view
on how the Internet affects human intelligence.
During his talk at the 2014 IdeaFestival, Thompson asserted the importance of "connected
thinking" to solving problems and exploring new frontiers.
Essentially, he believes that knowledge can now be crowd sourced.
7.
It's Confusing What's Important The nature of the 24-hour news cycle can sometimes
negatively skew a person's view of the Internet.
Nicholas Carr seems to think that this never-ending inundation of content has affected peoples'
ability to filter information properly: "There are studies suggesting a loss of cognitive
control - not only a loss of attention, but a loss of our ability to control our mind
and determine what we think about.
One researcher from Stanford pointed out that the more you acclimate yourself to the technology
and the constant flow of information that comes through it, it seems that you become
less able to figure out what's important to focus on.
Instead, your mind gets attracted just to what's new rather than what's important."
8.
It's Making Us Less Literary The web contains billions of pages on the
World Wide Web.
Internet-users likely feel that they're absorbing more written information than ever before
- but how much of that is long-form writing?
And as Internet usage continues to rise, will a person's ability to curl up with a good
book disappear?
Writing for Edge, social software expert Clay Shirky observes that, though people are reading
more and more, "literary culture" is under threat: "Having lost its actual centrality
some time ago, the literary world is now losing its normative hold on culture as well."
Science historian George Dyson similarly foresees a regression in humans' relationship to intellectualism
as the push towards digitization continues: "What if the cost of machines that think is
people who don't?...
Will books end up back where they started, locked away in monasteries and read by a select
few?"
9.
It's Turning Us Into "Pancake People" Though not everyone in the world has access
to it yet, the Internet has the mind-blowing capability to connect all humans on Earth
into a single hive-mind.
In some cases, this inter-connectivity can be positive, exposing people to new knowledge
and perspectives.
But, writing for Edge, playwright Richard Foreman questioned the diluting effect of
this expanded digital awareness: "Are we becoming 'Pancake People' - spread
wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere
touch of a button?"
As a person's attention is constantly divided between multiple glowing screens, they might
become a virtual jack of all trades, but master of none.
10.
It's Devaluing The Importance Of Solitary Contemplation
While the Internet can be a great cure for loneliness, it also encourages people to spend
less and less time in their own company with just their own thoughts to entertain them.
Why is this important?
Oxford University researcher Baroness Greenfield thinks that the Internet "discourages the
kind of deeply attentive thinking that leads to the building of knowledge, conceptual thinking,
reflection, and contemplativeness."
11.
It's Encouraging Us To "Think" Out Loud More For better or worse, people use the Internet
like a digital megaphone held up to their brains, immortalizing every word of their
inner monologues, no matter how mundane.
In his IdeasFest talk, Clive Thompson described this phenomenon as "public thinking," a trend
unique to the Internet.
With an estimated 3 trillion words written online every day, he argues that the Internet
has turned everyone into writers, whether they realize it or not.
12.
It's Raising Our Ambient Awareness Ambient awareness is an Internet-specific
phenomenon that involves "being aware of another's actions, thoughts and experiences without
having to be near them physically, and without specifically requesting such information."
Every time someone reads a status update, looks at a selfie, or watches a vlog, they're
increasing their sense of ambient awareness.
Clive Thompson notes, "Much like we pick up on subtleties through body language, these
small utterances [like tweets or status updates] help us to understand how our friends are
feeling."
For more infomation >> Denzel discurso emocionante e inspirador oscar 2017 - Duration: 2:08. 
For more infomation >> Urgent news of the channel! - Microphone? - Explorers - New Games | Mundo X - Duration: 10:56. 
For more infomation >> Salaam Bombay Part 1 of 2 Parts / 1988 / NR-R / Hindi with English subtitles - Duration: 30:09. 
For more infomation >> How I Make Money Online
For more infomation >> Opel Insignia BUSINESS EXECUTIVE 1.5T 165PK - LED - HEAD UP - LEDER - Duration: 0:54. 
For more infomation >> Hannity 02/20/18 9PM | February 20, 2018 Breaking News - Duration: 36:36. 
For more infomation >> Aquasana Power Filtration System with Carafe and 2 Filte... - Duration: 14:49. 
For more infomation >> VOLVO XC40 T5 AWD Geartronic 8 First Edition - Duration: 7:18. 
For more infomation >> LEAK: Trump Team Enjoying "Reprieve" Of School Shooting - Duration: 5:54. 
For more infomation >> PHOTOS Jennifer Lawrence montre presque tout dans un décolleté vertigineux - Duration: 3:22. 
No comments:
Post a Comment