In today’s world, most of us are tethered in some way to a computing device, be it our smartphone, tablet computer, laptop, or a combination of the three. Further, and perhaps more importantly, we tend to rarely disconnect from our personal devices for any extended period of time. As a result, we are continuously inundated with data, such as emails, text messages, and notifications and alerts from our social networks, to name a few.
Though those electronic devices might be virtually indispensable in today’s society, and yes our lives and lifestyles have had to evolve accordingly, are we being changed fundamentally by technology? Without a doubt, much can be said on this subject, and as our societies become even more digital, the effects of technology on us, physiologically, and on our lives, will become even more evident. However, below we highlight a few observations that have been made to date.
Our attention span and concentration are dwindling
Based on recent research, there is concern that technology is rewiring our brains. For example, in a 2008 article in The Atlantic magazine, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, the author outlined the change he had been experiencing:
I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.
Many of us are likely to be able to attest to the experience of that writer. Though we would have read novels back in the day, particularly at school, we now find ourselves opting out of reading books, or even long articles. If we must, more often than not, we just scan the text to try to pick up the salient points, but not necessarily to enjoy the experience of reading.
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