We have always invented new things, we have always worried about new things and we have always moaned about the younger generations.

The virtual world can seem more immediate and significant than the smelly, tasty, touchy 3D Real World. Its a place of anxiety and triumphant exhilaration which sweeps us into the social networking swirl of collective consciousness.It is a parallel world where you can be on the move in the Real World, yet always hooked into an alternative time and place.Many parents complain that they are unable to take their child away from screen time and back into the 3D world.

A Global Phenomenon

Sometimes the real world is not the best place to be. Video games can provide a calming routine for people who are unable to cope with the uncertainties of the real world.Unlike traditional real world games, video games offer an escape from the dull, difficult world to one that is more exciting, appealing to the senses and where there are reassuringly definite and predictable outcomes in which the player can participate as a better self.Research shows unhappy people create avatars that are very different to themselves whereas happy people create avatars just like themselves.

Video Games

We decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.

Research analysing reading behaviour in the digital environment has revealed that decreases in sustained attention are increasingly characterising peoples literacy skills. People inclined to browse, scan and read more selectively, will spend less time on in depth and concentrated reading.Paper books are of a fixed time and place, have permanence and therefore a reassuring security which an ebook will never deliver.Search engines offer an easy fast option as opposed to taking your brain for a work out, you will now run the risk of becoming mentally flabby. The display will be driving you.

The Display Is Driving You

Thinking is movement confined to the brain.

In 2000, brain scans showed that London cab drivers had developed physical changes in their brains as a result of their daily activity of constantly using their working memory. Their hippocampus was actually bigger compared to non taxi drivers of the same age. This is an example of the 'use it or lose it' principle.Plasticity is the term for this process, the brains ability to shape and mould itself in response to stimuli.Environmental enrichment has been demonstrated in studies showing physical changes in neural circuits through experience.

How The Brain Changes

Without Google and Wikipedia, I am stupid, not just ignorant.

Sharing personal information about oneself, as promoted on social networking sites, activates the reward systems in the brain the same way as food and sex do.

Upon waking, you will be checking your phone within 15 minutes of consciousness.You will need stimulation, excitement and escapism. So you use technology to socialise, for online shopping, playing games etc.The Real physical world is becoming less relevant as traditional constraints of time and space fade.The time that could have been spent walking in fresh air or having a face to face conversation has been forfeited in favour of cyberactivity, which is a completely new type of environment where taste, smell and touch are not stimulated, being completely sedentary for long periods of time.

Unprecedented Times

Books stand for knowledge, new ideas and the inventiveness of the human spirit and imagination.

The brain undergoes continuous physical change... the brain remakes itself throughout life, in response to outside stimuli to its environment and to experience.

Firstly, the human brain adapts to the environment; secondly, the environment is changing in an unprecedented way; so thirdly, the brain may also be changing in an unprecedented way.

When you share personal information on a social networking site, you share it with a large immediate audience.Research shows that the lack of face to face communication leads to a corresponding rise in self disclosure. The absence of visual cues or body language to discourage us or make us second guess what we may disclose, has lead to a rise in self disclosure.Body language is an ancient evolutionary mechanism for not letting our defences down prematurely.

Social Networking

The word 'ecstasy' in Greek means 'to stand outside' of oneself. It is this emotional, unreflective state that we seek out through a diverse range of pursuits - an absence of self consciousness, of being 'abandoned'.MINDLESS - sensation, strong feelings dominate, here and now, driven by external environment, little meaning, not self conscious, high dopamine, meaningless world.MINDFUL - cognition, thinking dominates, past-present-future, driven by internal perceptions, personalised meaning, robust sense of self, less dopamine, meaningful world.

Out Of Your Mind

Social networking sites could worsen communication skills and reduce interpersonal empathy.Personal identities might be constructed externally and refined to perfection with the praise of an audience as a priority, an approach more suggestive of performance art than of personal growth.Obsessive gaming could lead to greater recklessness, a shorter attention span and an increasingly aggressive disposition.Heavy reliance on search engines and a preference for surfing, rather than researching, could result in quick mental processing at the expense of deep knowledge and understanding.

Summary

How digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains.

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price? Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ. Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity. But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change. In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Psychology

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Parenting

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Technology & The Future

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Communication

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Science & Nature

We live in a world unimaginable only decades ago: a domain of backlit screens, instant information, and vibrant experiences that can outcompete dreary reality. Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price?   Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ.   Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity.   But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change.   In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment. Praise for Mind Change   “Greenfield’s application of the mismatch between human and machine to the brain introduces an important variation on this pervasive view of technology. . . . She has a rare talent for explaining science in accessible prose.”—The Washington Post   “Greenfield’s focus is on bringing to light the implications of Internet-induced ‘mind change’—as comparably multifaceted as the issue of climate change, she argues, and just as important.”—Chicago Tribune   “Mind Change is exceedingly well organized and hits the right balance between academic and provocative.”—Booklist   “[A] challenging, stimulating perspective from an informed neuroscientist on a complex, fast-moving, hugely consequential field.”—Kirkus Reviews   “[Greenfield] is not just an engaging communicator but a thoughtful, responsible scientist, and the arguments she makes are well-supported and persuasive.”—Mail on Sunday   “Greenfield’s admirable goal to prove an empirical basis for discussion is . . . an important one.”—Financial Times   “An important presentation of an uncomfortable minority position.”—Jaron Lanier, Nature

JOHN BOHANNON

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