Essay Example: Impact Of Technology On Human Brain

📌Category: Health, Science, Technology
📌Words: 1056
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 22 January 2022

Who could have thought that the massive influx of technology in modern live could have such a tremendous effect on the human brain? According to recent studies done by various health and educational institutions, technology being a major part of modern human daily life has impacted the brain in various ways by affecting the strength of social skills involved in contact activities, such as  having a face-to-face conversion with a person, changing the way young developing brains build essential skills such as learning to read, and teaching teenagers and young adults essential skills will come in handy in both the social digital world, and the real life workplace. To begin with, the continuous daily usage of technology over long periods of time has lead to a decrease in the socializing abilities of active participants that use the internet on a daily basis. This is reinforced by Source 1, “Scientists Ask: Is Technology Rewiring Our Brains?” by author Malcolm Ritter, stating: “When the brain spends more time on technology-related tasks and less time exposed to other people, it drifts away from fundamental social skills like reading facial expressions during conversations” This statement of evidence further proves the point that there are various potential consequences that occur when one spends excessive amounts of time active on the internet, a problem many teenagers and young adults struggle with. The potential negatives of internet use can often hinder the social abilities of a user, as evidence from Source 1 suggests, since a internet user could become more accustomed to only needing to read a line of text of interact with a person, as opposed to understanding facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice, all of which are essential in a real life face-to-face conversion with someone. 

To continue, an additional potential negative consequence of overindulgent internet use is the potential development of social issues such as social awkwardness and the lack of ability to understand nonverbal cues. This statement is backed by Source 1, which states “So brain circuits involved in face-to-face contact can become weaker, he suggests. That may lead to social awkwardness, an inability to interpret nonverbal messages, isolation and less interest in traditional classroom learning.” This piece of evidence shines a light on the fact that a overly high usage of technology can negatively affect the brain since a person with a deficiency in socializing and ability to understand non-verbal cues may not be as successful in the real world as their peers who don't use technology and electronics for an excessive amount of time.

In Addition, an unhealthy amount of time spent on technology can lead to rewiring of how the brain learns essential skills such as reading. According to Wolf, the brains of young children who spend their time online could respond by “short-circuiting parts of the normal reading pathways”, which could  cause the development of reading skill to take longer. This is a vital piece of information, as it shows that an unnaturally high technology use could have consequential effects on a young developing mind, potentially leading to a weaker part of the brain responsible for reading, a effect which could lead to the underdevelopment of essential thinking skills used later on in life and in the workforce. To add on,  Wolf states that kids may need “tailored education” to “fit their needs” when it comes to basic educational instruction on subjects such as reading and writing. This is ultimately is a very undesirable effect, as it would mean that students and younger generations around the world who are brought up with technology being a key aspect of their lives would have a harder time learning, understanding, and interpreting basic instructional and educational material, when compared to their non-technology focused peers. This over-reliance on technology would also mean that students would need various unique methods of learning in order to have their brains stimulated and be able to fully understand a concept, a proposition which would mean that students would not be able to properly learn in a normal classroom setting, as their brains have adapted to learning and digesting information via the way that the students have hardwired into their brains by the excessive usage of technology and electronic devices. 

Furthermore, technology can help to teach young brains essential skills that will come in handy in the real world and the professional workspace. According to Mizuke Ito University, teens who hangout online with their peers using “instant messages” helps them to “learn valuable skills” that they will “need to use at and socially in the digital age”.  This proves that by having a healthy, non-excessive amount of time spent interacting on the Internet with online friends can help lead to development of necessary skills that one would need in both the real world and the digital social world. This would also mean that the brain of the technology would be better adapted at being able to understand the different types and formats of information that are used in the real world, and the digital world. Additionally,  Mizuko Ito of the University of California states that technology usage can help teach users about Important issues such as “online privacy” and what type of content that should be used to “post and communicate on the internet”. This is a tremendously handy skill to have, as it helps to teach the person how to safe keep their personal identify and other secure information in the digital world, which also in turn helps the person learn to how secure any real world personal information and valuables and keep them safe.  However, this is not the only benefit, as due to the sheer size of the digital world, one has to learn what type of content should or should not be posted, as often times content posted on the Internet that may not be appropriate can often times lead to tangible real world consequence for the poster of the content. This would mean that posters and regular users of the internet would quickly learn what type of content is or is not allowed, a skill which can comes in handy when a person in the real world has to make a decision and decide whether or not the decision to made would have a positive or a negative impact on that persons' life. 

To conclude,  while technology being a main part of modern human life could have effects such as the affecting the strength of social skills involved in contact activities, such as  having a face-to-face conversation with a person, changing the way young developing brains build essential skills such as learning to read, and teaching teenagers and young adults essential skills will come in handy in both the social digital world, and the real life workplace, one cannot deny that it has made a very large impact on our lives.

 

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