Mobile Phones Rewire Our Brains Just Like Drugs Proves Neuroscience
If I say that continuous use of Mobile Phones is changing the way our brain thinks, I am sure most of you will agree with me. Again, if I say that continuous usage of mobile is also changing the Structure of our brains. And, I am not sure you would agree with this. Well Research has brought us to this side of Tech that it is indeed happening.
As a matter of fact everything we do changes our brain. By everything I mean everything. Every little thought, activity or experience plays a vital role in the constant wiring and rewiring of our neural networks. So there is no escape. Yes, mobiles or phones are rewiring our brains. But so is watching YouTube, having a chat with Rexbot; reading a Website Blog about Phones rewiring our brains or simply doing nothing and thinking about next season 8 of Game of Thrones. Or even not thinking about anything else. The way we live our lives, leaves traces in the brain.
Neuroscientists have now discovered that long exposure to digital devices can alter the shape our brains. Dr. Michael Merzinich of the University of California says that electronics are “substantially contributing” to changing not just our thinking also the physical structure of our brains. The research hints it is likely that the brains of future generations will be rewired differently from ours. Dr. Merzinich says devices remodel the linkage between white matter in a fashion similar to acquiring a new skill.
[Children’s] brains are going to be good at things we’re not good at. They’re not going to be good at things we’re good at,” said Dr. Merzinich.
Contents
Smartphones Rewire Brain – Should we worry about it?
Worrying about the mobile phone wiring our brains is just the latest in a long line of fears society has had about the changes technologies might bring. You probably know that initially people worried about books when they first became popularly available. If we look back in the chapter of history we will find that in Ancient Greece, Socrates worried about the effect of writing, saying it would erode young people’s ability to remember. Will you agree with this? Moving on, the same thing happened with television, telephones and then with Internet. These technologies did change us, and the way we live our lives, but nothing like the doom-mongers predicted would stem from these.
A couple of weeks ago a report was published in almost all Top Tech Magazines that Snapchat App is effecting the mind of young children among a number of other apps including Facebook, Instagram, etc. But is the mobile phone affecting our brains in a different, more extraordinary way? Now there are evidences of rewiring yet very few to suggest harm. Billions of us, including me and you, right now, using smart phone, and we seem okay. Some people worry that, even though we cannot see any ill-effects of smartphones on our minds. One can say that there might be something hidden going on and probably it will take a long time to show any apparent effect.
Impacts of Social Media in Rewiring of Brain?
Have you heard or experienced it that using a lot of Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or other Social Networking Sites stops us seeing our friends and family? Have you? Trust me I did a lot of time! Well if the answer is YES in doing so or stopping us practicing some other life skills, then usage of mobile phones would be a definite worry. But the evidence suggests this is not the case. If anything, people with more active internet lives have more active “meat-space” lives. Most of us are using the internet as a compliment to other ways of communicating, not as a substitute. Sounds convincing.
Conclusion
So there is no magic extra risk from the Smartphones – or till this time. Like TV before it, and reading before that, it gives us a way of practicing certain things. Practice will change our brains, just like any habit. The important thing is that we are part of this process, it is not just something that happens to us. You can decide how much time you want to put into it. There will be no sudden damage done to your brain, or great surprises for your brain fitness. Also, you would be a fool to think that mobile phones will provide all the exercise your brain needs, but you would also be a fool to pass up the opportunities it offers.
Top 5 Amazing Fact About Rewiring of Brains
- Taxi drivers, famously, have a larger hippocampus, a part of the brain recruited for navigation.
- The Atlantic published an essay by Nicholas Carr, one of the blogosphere’s most prominent (and thoughtful) contrarians, under the headline “Is Google Making Us Stupid?“
- Plato argued that the technology of writing would destroy the art of remembering. _ The Guardian
- The brain is like any other muscle – if you don’t stretch it, it gets both stiff and flabby. But if you exercise it regularly, and cross-train, your brain will be flexible, quick, strong and versatile.
- It is amazing fact that old Televisions made people dream in Black And White.
Bonus Fact
Do you know Research has found that Playing The Bad Guy In Video Games Makes Us Feel Guilty??!!
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What do you think Rewiring of our brains is in +ve or -ve direction??