Wired article on the web and our brains

[laurierobey]

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1

Interesting, but I'd need to see more viewpoints. Still, I can't deny that as I've used the web more, my ability to focus and my short term memory has deteriorated.

All sorts of jokes about "cognitive load" are going through my head right now.

Comments

[oceansedge.livejournal.com]

"Small then had his subjects read normal blocks of text projected onto their goggles; in this case, scans revealed no significant difference in areas of brain activation between the two groups."

I'd argue that THIS proves it hasn't so much rewired people's brains and thus changed the way they think so much as developed a new way of thinking about/in a new technology. Outside of that technology - it's meaningless. I think it's kinda a tempest in a teacup, much ado about nothing, sorta research.

[laurie-robey.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to agree. I think if you were able to compare this to the brain scans from back when television was introduced (if they had existed then), you'd see similar results.

I think rather than hyperlinks, the culprit in my case is just overall information overload. I have to learn how to deal with it and shut out the distractions, the same way a whole generation of people had to learn to deal with radio, tv, etc.