Is the Internet Changing Our Brains?
“Someone or something is tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going, but it’s changing.” States Nicholas Carr in the book Utopia Is Creepy. I’ve noticed it too, though. It seems no matter where I go, there is no escape from content. With all of human knowledge accessible with the touch of a button, it is no wonder why the inner workings of our brain are changing. We used to think of our minds to work such as a clock does, with gears and wheels turning. But with the invention of computers, humans are now thinking of cognition such as they would a computer program. And just like we were enslaved to the clock; controlling when we eat and sleep instead of relying on instinct, we are being enslaved to content. But what exactly is changing with our minds? Is Google making us stupid? Is Facebook making us depressed?
A major fear many psychologist and sociologists have on how the internet affects cognition is if technology is shortening our attention spans. I recall being able to sit and indulge myself into a book or lengthy article for hours, and now I find it difficult to sit through a piece of literature that is more than a few pages long. A recent study done by Microsoft found that since the year 2000, the human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, while the attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. This is due to the fast paced style of thinking that we have inherited from companies like Google, which have trained our brains to be accustomed to instant information. Although the study also claims that multitasking abilities have significantly improved, it proves that our cognition is undoubtedly changing.
The less leisure reading and concentrated thought there is, the more companies like Google benefit financially. Not only does this affect internet users, but it affects all types of media consumers. As people’s minds habituate to the hyperactive style of thought that internet media has bestowed, other forms of media must adapt to viewers expectations. Newspapers and magazines shorten their articles, while TV text crawls with pop-up adds. So not only is the internet affecting our cognition, but it affects society as a whole. Internet companies are changing the world around us, making us more fast paced than ever.
Also, society relies heavily on computer automation. Whether it be for flying planes or medical machines. In the article “The Great Forgetting,” Nicholas Carr writes how this epidemic is affecting our society and our safety. Some examples he used were when a simple pilot error caused a plane to crash into a house in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. Or when a doctor error caused the death of a patient. In both examples, the professionals relied too much on software automation, which led to a tragic end. Computer automation makes getting what we want easier, but it distances us from the work of knowing. We can’t rely on automation to do important jobs for us. We should never get too comfortable with technology. Automation has advanced our society tremendously, but there are some side effects. We can’t let software think for us.
Cultural dynamics also affect our brains. The way we think, what we deem acceptable in society, the way we behave, and our cognition. Our culture is a big piece of what defines us as individuals, and technology seems to be tainting our society, thus effecting what makes us who we are.
In a lecture at SXSW festival, Michael Pietrus, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, inquired an interesting hypothesis: “Maybe these aren’t just Internet-age annoyances but something approaching an actual pathology. Maybe the Internet is giving us all the symptoms of ADHD.” Although he states in his lecture that he is not claiming that the internet is directly causing ADHD, he does notice that the internet can impair underlying attention functions. A new report found that there is a 43% increase in ADHD diagnoses for U.S children since 2003, but is this increase in diagnoses related to the overall increase in internet use?
The above graph shows a correlation between the number of people that have been diagnosed with ADHD and the percentage of people that have use the internet since 2003 in the U.S. The graphs clearly rise in a similar pattern, but is correlation causation in this case? Researchers have found that patients report high comorbidity of internet addiction with psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, and ADHD. Another study followed 2,000 adolescents for 2 years to determine whether the presence of internet addiction would predict later development of ADHD. They found that depression and social phobia were also associated with later problems, but ADHD was shown to be the most significant predictor for the development of Internet addiction. Not only has there been an increase in the number of people that use the internet, but the amount of time individuals spend online has drastically increased. American Adults in 2018 now spend half of their day interacting with media.
This isn’t too surprising, though. The average American checks their phone 80 times a day. It seems that Americans can’t stand the slightest instance of monotony. Maybe this epidemic has less to do with obsession of content and more to do with the avoidance of self reflection. Are we avoiding our own thoughts?
Another question that seems to be asked frequently in the shadow of the digital age is if social media making us more depressed. It seems like an odd question given that social media is used specifically as a platform to connect with one another. Communication has always played a pivotal role in our progression as a species. After all, we are social beings who rely on one another for survival. But is too much of a good thing bad? A study done by the University of Pittsburgh determined that young adults who spend more time on social media are more likely to be depressed. Although social media has encouraged good things such as social change, finding common ground with one another, or connecting with old friends, the instant access to communication that social media provides is crippling the youth.
Part of the appeal to social media is the combination of distance and intimacy. A 2010 AARP survey showed that Americans were becoming increasingly more lonely. Could this be linked to social media? We’ve found ourselves in a dilemma where we can be intimate with our peers while not being with them. Our thirst for social interaction is quenched while isolating ourselves, making us more lonely than ever. Some scholars, such as Reed Alexander, a credible blogger, claim that the increase in loneliness is only due to narcissistic cultural changes, but what causes these changes? Social media is a breeding ground ego; each tweet is a headline and each Instagram post is a competition for likes.
Just as social media breeds ego, it breeds self-consciousness. The more we try to find significance in the insignificant, the more desperate we seek self importance. The desperation for relevance is expressed largely through social media. Sending out a tweet to an audience makes us feel important and makes us feel like we have a voice, but I have seen firsthand how much this generation values that voice. Too many times than not I have scene people feel worthless over not getting enough likes on an Instagram post. We are turning into an anxiety ridden generation obsessed with self-image. According to a study done by Clarissa Silva, a renowned scientific contributor, 60% of people say social media has affected their self-esteem negatively. In the book Utopia is Creepy, author Nicholas Carr states, “Society is growing ever more skeptical of the value of solitude, ever more suspicious of even the briefest of withdrawals into inactivity and apparent purposelessness.” The more we value self-image, the more worthless we feel.
A common element in internet addiction is the rising anxiety of missing out on things.
The graph above shows a correlating trend between the anxiety of missing out and media addiction. The data between media addiction and fear of missing out rise and fluctuate in similar patterns. But Is correlation causation? In a recent study, researchers directly linked media addiction to the fear of missing out.
This video clip features award winning public speaker and entrepreneur, Bailey Parnell. She goes into detail on the way that social media causes anxiety and stress. She cites a study done by a collection of Canadian universities that claim 7 out of 10 people would delete there social media if they weren’t kept out of the “loop.” Parnell talks about how social media users only post the highlights of their lives, but as you scroll through Instagram and see all of your followers doing cool and interesting stuff, it makes you wonder why you aren’t living that way, causing low self esteem. In a recent study, fear of missing out, or FoMO, is associated to lower need satisfaction, mood, and life satisfaction. FoMO is also linked to increased levels of media engagement and media addiction.
In the golden age of communication, there’s a never ending stream of thoughts and ideas seeping into your psyche. I often ask myself if my thoughts belong to me or if they’re something I inherited from the hours of net surfing. With each scroll of a thumb on Twitter, I feel less and less like myself. I almost feel like I am a “pancake person,” which is described by the famous playwright, Richard Foreman, as “spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.” As mass communication increases, the lines that separate cultures is blurred. As the obsession with quick gratification and instant information gains, original thought will become scarce. Maybe a reason this generation is so depressed is because we lost sight of who we are.
There are many factors on why Americans are suffering from social media and internet addiction at alarmingly increasing rates, but I believe social media plays a big role in that. I hope that social media addiction can be more recognized to bring this frightening dilemma to an end. I hope we can rid the mentality of people who only find solace by feeling important online.
