How will emerging technologies alter & evolve thought patterns & habits?
From Internet: Knowledge and Community
Habits and thought patterns seem to be evolving with the expansion of our technologies. Along with our new technologies have come a whole new set of problems, both physical and mental.
"Technology, and most especially, computers and the Internet, seem to be at best easily overused/abused, and at worst, addictive.The combination of available stimulating content, ease of access, convenience, low cost, visual stimulation, autonomy, and anonymity—all contribute to a highly psychoactive experience. By psychoactive, that is to say mood altering, and potentially behaviorally impacting. In other words these technologies affect the manner in which we live and love. It is my contention that some of these effects are indeed less than positive, and may contribute to various negative psychological effects."[1]
Contents |
Emerging Ailments alined with advanced technologies
- Blackberry Thumb
- Internet Addiction
- Carpal Tunnel
The effects on relationships
- Internet dating
- Easier to keep in touch with social networking sites
- Long distance relationships are easier with Skype
Negative Impacts
"Research by Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA, who concluded that constant exposure to modern media strengthens new neural pathways while weakening older ones. Just five hours of internet use is enough to awaken previously dormant parts of the brain's pre‑frontal cortex, concluded Small."[2]
Due to the mass of information on the internet it is easy to skip from one site to another.
New Technologies have made it possible for people to multi-task and be performing many different task at the same time; however there is a question as to how well any task can be performed in this manner. There is also concern over the effect that a lack of attention and multi-tasking has on the memory.
"Facebook and Twitter have become enormously powerful consumers of young people's time."[3]
The Pros
"Champions of modern media point to the increased ability of young people to find and manipulate information – to marry video, stills and text for educational purposes. . . Moreover, there is evidence that youngsters who use sites like Facebook and MySpace have more rewarding offline social lives than those who do not."[4]
Sources
Is Google Making Us Stupid?: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains [5]
Running Head: Virtual Addiction [6]
Are Twitter and Facebook affecting how we think? [7]
Responses
Charly's Response
I think with the escalating prevalence of the internet we will begin to see a transformation in the structure of knowledge, specifically, the take over of "vertical" knowledge, by "horizontal" knowledge. By vertical, what is meant is the structure of knowledge in which the range of topics with which one is knowledgable of may be relatively limited, but the extent to which an individual is familiar with those specific types of knowledge is immense. Consider the 18th century town of colonial America. Due to technological limitations as well as others (religious dogma for example) the town members had a much more narrow range of knowledge than we do today. That is, they could not as easily find out about what was going on in other parts of the world. However, because of these confines, they may have gained a deeper understanding of the types of knowledge they did have at their disposal i.e. farming, carpentry, artistry, Christianity etc. because they were limited by there environment and capabilities, they did not "hop" around from one topic to another which brings us to the internet and the "horizontal" knowledge that it fosters. With the omnipotent reach into cyberspace that the internet provides I think we have begun to habituate ourselves to receive merely snippets of knowledge from a variety of places rather than investing ourselves to the mastery/perfection/immersion in any one specific area. This of course is to be taken with a grain of salt of course because the internet does not necessarily limit us to to a horizontal approach of knowledge, it just makes possible and perhaps encourages us to do so. It could be argued that we have become a culture of sound bites and headlines, knowing a little bit about everything but not a lot about anything.
Merilyn's Response
Emerging technology will alter the thought patterns and habits in many ways, but most of them negative. One way would be the struggle to keep up with new technology. Alot of people have experienced that feeling of buying a new electronic and a few months later a newer and better version comes out. Financially they can't afford it, but most people try to maintain a certain image to always have the new devices that they usually can't afford to keep. The second is the lack of family communication, these days almost everyone within a household owns a electronic device of some sort. With heads burried in a phone or laptop, family interactions lessen and family bonds will become of less importance. Within my own family texting has become a whole different and easier way of communicating when everyone is busy or doing their own thing. Last, addiction to social networks can have a huge effect mentally and physically on someones health. At times we take what is good and over exert it till it just becomes unhealthy or harmful. Emerging technology is a great thing and a very helpful tool, but the abuse of a good thing will result in unhealthy consequences. I think we as Americans have become so use to overindulgence that naturally when we find something that can satisfy our needs we will take advantage of that. It has become a creation that went from effective to excessive.
