Damage Smartphones our memory? A brain researcher says

If man is to process large amounts of information, switches to his brain to go on defense. Promotes the flood of data on the Internet blockades in Mind? With such aspects of digital media, Braunschweig, Germany, neurobiologist Martin Korte is concerned. The Professor advises to store more Knowledge in your own memory, instead of relying on the Internet.

We are experiencing a Revolution in the brain, because many people use solid Smartphones and digital media?

I see no Revolution of our brain. The brain is highly adaptable in the course of our lives. People can learn a lot. But the genetic Constitution of the brain is changing in time periods of tens of thousands of years. In this respect we are witnessing here is not a Revolution. What I tend to believe that we are witnessing a transition state in which we have to learn a new technology deal. At the Moment, but I do not see evidence that we use digital media so that we do our brains a Favor.

What goes wrong?

One thing is that we outsource too much Knowledge and not even try to Know save. It is important to be able to complex problems, to think and to get yourself to new solutions.

What do you mean exactly?

Martin Korte (54) is a Professor in the Department of Cellular neurobiology at the TU in the lower Saxony town of Braunschweig. He is investigating the cellular basis of Learning, memory and Forgetting. Brain researcher advises school authorities to questions of digital media.

There are studies with people who have grown up with the Internet, with so-called Digital Natives. When you ask a simple question, not to think about it, if they knew the answer for himself, but only through an Internet search. But we can only start a reasonable search if we already know a lot. Otherwise, you get to 80,000 answer hits in 0.4 seconds. You need one and a half life times to read them. Most of the users read only the first three hits. You believe then, to have the right answer. However, to be able to answer as good or bad estimate, you must already have prior knowledge of a mass. This Knowledge is not accumulated but, if you shift to the grid. Also, a competence that you need to acquire is Knowledge.

On the Internet a lot of information, you can find…

Yes. But information and have Think of a a a difference is. A theme to penetrate really, it is necessary to have stored in your head things and work with it. Because it is always to be read from the misconception that our brains have a hard drive. And we no longer needed now, because we have the Internet, a much higher storage volume. The brain has no hard drive. But whenever we learn on a field a lot of, an expert, or an expert to be change in the brain many processes. Our perception on the topic is different, our Thinking, our Actions.

And what is changing in the digital world is still in the heads?

The Second, what changes in the brain, is that the working memory is small: Our capacity for concentration, time, how long we can concentrate, without distract us, is small. There are studies that show that a number of users on the Computer engaged in for about 40 seconds of one thing, before you get distracted. You can expect that this is not the meaningful work that leads to productivity.

How much smaller the working memory is?

There is a large study that we are here dropped from 15 to 11 seconds. If you ask volunteers, without you having to know what is important to remember a term a certain period of time, then you can see: in the past, they have managed 15 seconds. Now the majority of only eleven seconds. As we are dropped off significantly.

You say: There are mountains of information on the Internet that can rate people badly. At the same time, people are often distracted and do many things at the same time. These things are reflected in the head?

The brain changes its ways of Processing it as a reaction to what comes from the outside in. When the brain feels overwhelmed by the amount of information to process it, then happens is that you sit down and try to think in a more differentiated. Instead, the brain switches to a mode to think undifferentiated and the information is more likely to repel. This means, for example, for current debates: It is not going to make it with someone who feels overwhelmed, differentiated about a US President, Donald Trump thinking. Just when you submit 100 facts, where this politician has lied, will reduce the brain with a penchant for the huge amount of data is so strong that there are only black-and-white. To high complexity often leads to dodging to Simplify.

And how safe is that this has to do with digital technology?

Very exact measurements to it, so no 100 percent certainty about cause and effect, because it produces only correlations, i.e. relationships. You can say, for example, that since 2007/08 has increased significantly, more and more people feel overwhelmed by information. We also have since then intensified discussions about difficulties with very simplified representations of the Internet to the misrepresentations, i.e. Fake News. This date is not accidental, because in 2007 the iPhone was introduced. Shortly thereafter more than 50 percent of the people had in the Western societies a Smartphone. Since then, we can carry the Internet in your phone with us, there is a growing amount of information with which we surround us constantly.

But the connection is not proven?

You have to be careful with correlations always. There was also a large economic crisis and the Bank collapse in 2008. For me, this is a Smartphone, however, a very compelling correlation.

It goes downward, so with our brains?

I’m not so pessimistic. It is not the fault of digital media that we feel overloaded by information, but it comes to our type of use. As with any technology, it takes time to get accustomed to the technical conditions.

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