Technology and our intellectual development
Introduction
Technology has completely changed the way human beings of today live, work, communicate as well as get entertained. Just a simple touch of a button, I can get whatever information I need in seconds. My generation has witnessed tremendous changes in technology, and this has completely changed the way our minds absorb and process information. We are becoming more unable to keep our smartphones, tablets, or laptops far away from our physical location. When it comes to shaping our brains, our environment plays a very crucial role.
According to Clivson, we are getting better at accessing the information we require. Although we can’t remember everything, we are improving on searching for the information we need. It now appears like the part of our brains previously used to store facts and information is now being used to remind us where and how to find it….though some renowned psychologists indicate that these technological developments have negatively affected our memories, it is also true to say that we are becoming highly skilled in remembering where to find things.
Our capabilities to multitask have immensely improved. Most young people take pride in how they can perform different tasks at the same time. For instance, an individual youth can talk over the phone, watch YouTube clips, or even respond to an email at the same time. While it is agreeable that multitasking sounds impressive, psychologists argue that performing different activities that rely on the same type of brain processing is almost impossible. If it happens, the ability of our brains to work efficiently is affected and can make us more forgetful.
Moreover, our intellectual capabilities are increasing over time. Increased access to online video games has made parents and experts more worried that the new and flashy technologies would bring unprecedented problems to the youth’s ability to think critically. However, the exact opposite has happened: these computer games and easy access to online tutorials have given rise to a new crop of computer programmers.
The launch of computer games across the globe is happening almost daily. The rise in the number of young programmers means that the evolvement of technology is making us smarter.
Also, we are getting better at determining what is relevant. A simple google search will give out so many results. Some of these findings will be completely irreverent. After all, gone are the days when people restricted themselves to printing out whatever information at their disposal. The recent simplified changes in technology have enabled us to freely store upload any information to the google servers without restricting access. Postgraduate students doing their master’s degree can confirm this since they spend most of their limited time going through meaningless research that can’t be proven or used. We have been left with no option but to sort out all our findings and determine what’s relevant and reliable, and with so much practice, our brains are getting better.
Our brains are always looking out for new information. The inventions of new technological modes of communication have eased access to trending news. Different studies indicate trending topics rarely pass people who are active social media users unnoticed. The number of youths who are always thinking that something new and exciting could be happening at any given time is growing daily. We tend to overlook older information in search of further valuable information. For example, instead of focusing on essential tasks in our area of work, we’re easily distracted by incoming emails.
On the other hand, our face-to-face interactions have gone down. A random check at goa groups of friends in one physical location, one can notice most of them spending a significant amount of time staring at their smartphones rather than physically chatting amongst themselves. Moreover, youths of today heavily rely on using emojis to express our feelings and even prefer communicating online in place of face-to-face interactions. More worrying, many children brought up in the digital era lack conversation skills learned through physical, social interactions.