The Internet has become an essential part of human life. It is impossible to imagine a civilized house without an Internet. All the companies work with the help of the Internet and it seems that people are unable to live without this innovation. The Internet gives people much.
News is considered on the Internet, all the information people need may be found online, people communicate and entertain with the help of the Internet. However, many scientists start warning people about the harmful effect of the Internet on human brain. To operate actively and successfully, human brain should work. The Internet prevents people from thinking that results in stunting their mental growth.
Much research is initiated in this direction and thinking critically it is possible to find many reasons why people should start warring about their brain rewire. Reading the article ‘As the Internet rewires our brains’ written on February 28, 2009 by Kurt Cagle, it is impossible to disagree with the statements provided there that the Internet “is turning us into idiot savants, Aspergers and reverting our brains to a more primitive state”.
Starting the discussion with the most popular Internet services, it is essential to speak about Facebook and Twitter. These services affect human ability to think. Children who start communicating in these social nets stop thinking critically.
Heavy use of Facebook and Twitter makes children just repeat the said, think primitive and forget about critical skills. To be critically developed, human brain has to work. Such services as Facebook and Twitter do not give people an opportunity to think, they just make them consume some information which does not train human brain.
People repeat primitive statements, they get to know the simplest news about the life of other people, but this information does not make people think, therefore, their brain remains stable. As it has already been mentioned, people have to train their brain to have the skills of critical thinking and to have brain work, in general. What is Facebook? It is a social network which helps people to get in touch, but, in practice, many people have made it the way of their life. Twitter is a more primitive way of social life, and it also makes people degrade.
How else does the social network affect people? Thinking about the Internet, the most spread facility which comes to mind is communication.
It is obvious that many people communicate online with friends and relatives who live far away. But the main problem is that there are people who begin to think that online communication is the only way of interaction. Kurt Cagle in his article presents several examples of the cases when people could not understand each other when speaking in the real world. Live communications are not interesting for people.
Modern youth would better write a message online than call to a person or arrange a meeting. Online people have an opportunity to speak with many friends at one and the same time and there is no need to leave the house. Moreover, people are able to write messages without showing intonation and face reaction. People can think about the answer for some time. All these aspects make people lazy.
Therefore, when they speak in a real world, from eye to eye, it seems that they fail to understand each other as there is not much time on thinking. Rereading a message or answering it online people may think thoroughly, but there is no such an opportunity while real communication. Speaking in a real world people forget how to express their opinion. They have to think fast, but the absence of constant training and practice does not give them a chance to express their thoughts adequately that leads to full misunderstanding.
One more problem of the Internet which confirms the opinion that it rewires our brains is the absence of the concentration while reading. When people read books they have to be too concentrated not to leave important details. Now, reading a book, people do not need to think about it.
There is a lot of software and other possibilities which help people find necessary information in the text without reading the whole part. Moreover, having forgotten the place where the information is located people can easily search for that fragment using the innovative technologies. This also leaves people without the necessity to train their brain.
According to Kurt Cagle, human brain has to work in order to be active. When people read information with the desire to remember it brain works, but if people do not try to memorize the most important parts, when they are not interested in thinking critically brain stops working. Moreover, the Internet is full of many comments and reviews on the necessary topic and many people use them. It is easier to ask at Yahoo or use another service online where those who think may answer this question.
This information is referred to. Unfortunately, the Internet gives people too much information. The intensive stream of information lowers human attention. It is a fact that when people consume too much information they do not need to, they stop paying much attention to it, their attention lowers and it leads to inability to remember information. Those facts which people have to remember may be found online, why should they memorize them?
Kurt Cagle says that all the changes in human activities lead to changes in human mind. When people learnt speaking their brain changed. The development of reading and writing also affected human mind. Now the Internet era has come and it is a big question whether it benefits human brain or harms it.
According to the facts and research which has already been conducted, the Internet “kills” the skills people have been obtaining during many centuries. The innovations assist people and make their lives easier. However, they also prevent human brain from work which is a negative side.
In conclusion, I would like to state that I agree with the article ‘As the Internet rewires our brains’ by Kurt Cagle. People stop learning. Getting more information, they do not see a necessity to remember it that prevents their brain from work. It is obvious that human live communication is important, but people do not tend to speak to each other eye to eye as it is easier to write a message.
All these factors are upsetting as the destinations of many centuries are ruined. New generations would follow the examples of their parents and they would refuse to think. Thus, I suppose that in several centuries we will have to start learning writing and critical thinking as our ancestries did.