How The Internet is CHANGING Your Brain

Just consider what life would be like without the internet. Some of us may even recall a time before everything was connected, but the idea of living without smartphone maps where search engines ran at our fingertips now seems completely foreign. However, how is our increasing reliance on the online world affecting us? Our relationships, sources of information, and the way we interact with one another are all changing quickly, and there are even noticeable effects occurring within our China has 721 million users, followed by India and then the other two top-ranked nations.

Social media and messaging apps have become essential to how we live our lives and communicate with more than a billion people regularly using apps like WhatsApp users, who were born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, logged an average of one hundred and ten minutes of mobile internet usage each day while Millennials, who were born from the early 80s onward and grew up with the internet locked in the average of one hundred and eighty-five minutes per day. The usage of Internet shopping and services has caused a steep reduction in the use of conventional high street retailers, and text messages are becoming less popular. How is all this altering our minds with such a richness of knowledge at our fingertips when our towns and cities are starting to look considerably different from what they did a few decades ago? Millennials have been found to be far more forgetful than previous generations, which is thought to be a direct result of the constant distractions that connectivity brings. The basic principle behind memory is that the more a piece of information is repeated and retained, the more likely it is to be remembered. Constant new information, however, hinders this process from taking place as effectively and far less is permanently stored. In addition, the knowledge that information is easily accessible online reduces your likelihood of forming a memory of it. Whereas previous generations would have memorized directions on a map for example, now there is a reliance on being able to access this information.

The more you rely on your phone and an app to provide information to you, the less you can decide what's important to focus on. As a result, we are less concerned with information that is important and more concerned with information that is new. This means that not only is our ability to control our minds reducing but also our ability to decide what we're thinking about. What can be done about this? Although technology is undoubtedly changing how our brains function, this is not always a bad thing. Throughout history, technologies have always allowed us to divert our attention from one task to another. For instance, the use of washing machines reduces the amount of time spent by people cleaning their clothing, therefore these additional hours.

The ability to converse and obtain information much more quickly on the internet implies that we still have the additional mental capacity for other processes as the majority of our day is taken up by work or other pursuits. It's a good idea to be mindful of how much time you spend each day on distractions, so my recommendation is to keep track of how much time you're spending a day and unplug it sometimes. Reducing our screen time can assist to keep our brains more active and pliable most of our day is spent at work or engaging in other activities, but the ability to communicate and get information much more rapidly on the internet suggests that we still have the additional mental capacity for other tasks. My advice is to keep track of how much time you waste each day on distractions and take breaks from them occasionally. It's a good idea to be aware of how much time you waste on distractions. Our brains can stay more active and flexible if we limit our screen time.