Digital Dementia
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Let me Google that and I'll tell you if I have been mentally atrophied.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Huh?
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me me, in pictures
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
My spelling has always been poor, as has my mental arithmetic. I used to be able to work almost anything out with a pen and paper however, and recently discovered I still can. The only mental faculty that is noticeably worse now is my memory, although I am putting that down to age. I don't think I commit things to memory as well as I used to though, possibly because I know I can easily look the same thing up again. Short term memory is very poor.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
Nope, I've always relied on technology, so I just never developed them! :laugh: More seriously, I've never been good at rote memorization. I can learn processes fine, but lists of raw information (e.g. phone numbers, dates) just don't stick. But in a world where internet access is becoming ubiquitous, that may be the more valuable skill to have anyways. Having access to that much information isn't any good if you don't know what to do with it. But, I'm not really sure about that article, how does it relate to video games? I can understand people becoming mentally reliant on smart phones, but video games don't really fill in any gaps in what we use our brains for (except maybe imagination?). They're just a way to fill empty time. (Which of course could be something our brains need, but it doesn't seem to make that connection in the article.) If anything, I would think gamers might develop stronger attention spans, the part of the brain they claim is going unused as a result. Personally, they're one of the few things I can concentrate on, the rest of the time my brain is wandering everywhere else.
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
Nope, I've always relied on technology, so I just never developed them! :laugh: More seriously, I've never been good at rote memorization. I can learn processes fine, but lists of raw information (e.g. phone numbers, dates) just don't stick. But in a world where internet access is becoming ubiquitous, that may be the more valuable skill to have anyways. Having access to that much information isn't any good if you don't know what to do with it. But, I'm not really sure about that article, how does it relate to video games? I can understand people becoming mentally reliant on smart phones, but video games don't really fill in any gaps in what we use our brains for (except maybe imagination?). They're just a way to fill empty time. (Which of course could be something our brains need, but it doesn't seem to make that connection in the article.) If anything, I would think gamers might develop stronger attention spans, the part of the brain they claim is going unused as a result. Personally, they're one of the few things I can concentrate on, the rest of the time my brain is wandering everywhere else.
I take your point about the video games. However, before video games, kids used to fill their time by using their imaginations and building their creative skills. That might make a difference.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
Nope, I've always relied on technology, so I just never developed them! :laugh: More seriously, I've never been good at rote memorization. I can learn processes fine, but lists of raw information (e.g. phone numbers, dates) just don't stick. But in a world where internet access is becoming ubiquitous, that may be the more valuable skill to have anyways. Having access to that much information isn't any good if you don't know what to do with it. But, I'm not really sure about that article, how does it relate to video games? I can understand people becoming mentally reliant on smart phones, but video games don't really fill in any gaps in what we use our brains for (except maybe imagination?). They're just a way to fill empty time. (Which of course could be something our brains need, but it doesn't seem to make that connection in the article.) If anything, I would think gamers might develop stronger attention spans, the part of the brain they claim is going unused as a result. Personally, they're one of the few things I can concentrate on, the rest of the time my brain is wandering everywhere else.
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I take your point about the video games. However, before video games, kids used to fill their time by using their imaginations and building their creative skills. That might make a difference.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
I agree it could, but that doesn't seem to connect to the effect they claim. I admit, I'm a little touchy about the subject. It just seems to be a favorite media scapegoat, almost always with no actual evidence, and it irritates me. The way it's written it seems to be more of like they thought: "Hmm...well we like smart phones...so let's blame video games too!"
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There was a report a few weeks ago saying that children need to be bored in ble to develop imagination and to be creative.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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There was a report a few weeks ago saying that children need to be bored in ble to develop imagination and to be creative.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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Any chance you've lost a "
order to be a", from somewhere right beforeble?Make it work. Then do it better - Andrei Straut
I lost one of those also. Darndest thing.
BDF The internet makes dumb people dumber and clever people cleverer. -- PaulowniaK
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
What utter bollocks. Oh. It's the daily mail. That explains a lot. On a real note, there are genuine worries in China that younger people are not learning to write by hand, since computers, etc, allow them to use Pinyin to enter Chinese characters. It takes a long, long time and a lot of practice to write in Chinese (they have somewhat more than 26 characters, and they're all a lot more complicated to write), and, understandably, Chinese kids aren't putting in the required time and effort.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
If I don't use things on a regular basis, I forget how it works. Its usually very easy to remember how it works again and I just need a reminder, e.g. reading it again. That's my opinion anyways. I do feel that what out brains think are important to remember has shifted. Your brain probably thinks that it can solve simple arithmetic with a calculator so it doesn't require you to remember it anymore. It now focuses more on how to use a calculator. (just a simple example)
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence." << please vote!! >>
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
Nope, I've always relied on technology, so I just never developed them! :laugh: More seriously, I've never been good at rote memorization. I can learn processes fine, but lists of raw information (e.g. phone numbers, dates) just don't stick. But in a world where internet access is becoming ubiquitous, that may be the more valuable skill to have anyways. Having access to that much information isn't any good if you don't know what to do with it. But, I'm not really sure about that article, how does it relate to video games? I can understand people becoming mentally reliant on smart phones, but video games don't really fill in any gaps in what we use our brains for (except maybe imagination?). They're just a way to fill empty time. (Which of course could be something our brains need, but it doesn't seem to make that connection in the article.) If anything, I would think gamers might develop stronger attention spans, the part of the brain they claim is going unused as a result. Personally, they're one of the few things I can concentrate on, the rest of the time my brain is wandering everywhere else.
I think, generally speaking, that programmers and engineers are better at working things out than they are at memorising facts. For instance, I always did well at maths and other subjects that involved problem solving. I was absolutely hopeless at history, geography and languages because they relied on memory. Of course, the really intelligent folk, unlike myself, can do both.
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Actually, I've noticed the opposite: As I've gained understanding of the accumulation of technology around us, I've gotten sharper. Indeed, it's been a survival necessity.
One of the underappreciated aspects of the tech explosion is that it's tended to cross-cut Mankind's principal advantage over the lower orders: adaptability. Learning is about adaptation. We incorporate knowledge and behavioral consequences that flow from it to cope with the challenges and hazards around us. However, a great part of the tech proliferating around John Q. Public has subtly insulted that human asset. In effect, it's said to us, "You don't need to be that alert and adaptable. We the swaddling technological environment will learn your oddities and needs, and adapt to them!"
This is not good -- and not because all the tech might disappear some day and leave us dependent on ourselves once again. If we succumb to the "guidance of the machines," (Cf. John Sladek, "This Happy Breed") we will eventually surrender the greater part of our freedom to choose.
To function independently, and at a high level, in the tech-suffused 21st Century, it's become necessary to:
- Take note of the arrival of a new item of tech around us;
- Learn its range of available states and what causes it to enter each of them;
- Acquire new states of our own that are prior and superior to those of the emergent tech.
If we wish to continue to be the masters of our own affairs, this is mandated by the Law of Requisite Variety. And I so wish.
(Yes, I'm quite serious. Consider the hash "smart traffic lights" have made of previously predictable and easily negotiated urban driving patterns, because so many people have failed to acquire new adaptations by which to place the driver in command of them. That's just one example.)
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
I have been wondering about that myself for several years now. I just can't be sure if the liquor or the digital dependence are to blame.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson ---- Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
"I think we're becoming a generation of avid categorisers, we no longer retain the information we consume, but we know where to find it." This is something a friend and I talked about not so long ago it and we came up with the statement above.
Simon Lee Shugar (Software Developer) www.simonshugar.co.uk "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everybody dances with the grim reaper" - Robert Alton Harris
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Richard Andrew x64 wrote:
Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
Much on the contrary: I feel that technology has allowed me to leverage what mental abilities I do have, while compensating for those I lack (rote learning, mostly). It's just like Dr. Kusanagi [^] said: "The machines (...) are the hands and we are the head. Only together do we make humanity."
"Whereas smaller computer languages have features designed into them, C++ is unusual in having a whole swathe of functionality discovered, like a tract of 19th century Africa." -- Verity Stob http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/05/cplusplus\_cli/
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'Digital dementia' on the rise as young people increasingly rely on technology instead of their brain [^] I must confess there is some truth to this as far as I am concerned. I find myself having trouble with simple arithmetic that I normally used to be able to do in my head. Has anyone else noticed a decrease in their mental abilities due to relying on technology?
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Daily Mail wrote:
They say that teenagers have become so reliant on digital technology they are no longer able to remember everyday details such as their phone numbers.
Of course they won't memorize phone numbers! Why should they if their smart phones and computers are much more capable and reliable at performing that job for them? There's plenty of other stuff to remember, why waste valuable resources on stuff that modern devices can handle? Tomorrows news: "Cars cause degrade in chinese farmers' physical fitness" (because they drive to town rather than walk 10km every day in order to sell their stuff) And the day after: "Ticket machines degrade commuters' conversational skills" :doh:
