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Study: Multimedia Multitasking May Be Shrinking Human Brains
An anonymous reader writes It seems that switching between laptop, smart phone and tablet may be shrinking our brains and leaving us prone to higher levels of anxiety and stress reports new research from the University of Sussex in the UK. The researchers point out that the link is currently a correlation rather than a proof of causation, but they do suggest that people who used a higher number of media devices concurrently also had smaller grey matter density — in other words they have smaller brains.
Web developers need to test their websites on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones all day long. We're as good as hot dog water sunshine, bread blue?
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This story/theme seems to get posted at least once a year. Does that make it truthier? And given the benefits of this electronic crap; is the tradeoff worth it?
Moths are attracted to bright lights, and they have very small brains. I'm seeing some kind of correlation here......
Twit ^
why PC-only gamers are the master race
Posting anonymously about your penis size and being forced to offend in order to name a partner screams "I have a baby penis and live in mom's basement". We get it, you are not only mentally and emotionally deficient, but sexually deficient as well. Do us all a favor thimbledick, stay on the pr0n sites.
This idea that multitasking and short attention spans have a negative impact on cognition is not new. It goes back at least to Nicholas Carr's 2008 magazine article that served as the basis for his book The Shallows .
I think there are philosophical issues here. While the human biological organism might be "getting stupider", if our electronic devices are seen as augmentations, then doesn't our total cyborg person remain just as intelligent? That is, people have not become stupider, they have just moved some information processing from the brains in their skull to the devices in their heads.
The appearance of emotional issues might be a serious problem, but on the other hand, let's see how future generations who grow up with electronics from their infancy feel.
That's why instead of running between thousands of servers one needs to focus on single server and the automation code on it to manage it all. But that's simple example. So by modelling everything on one source-code tree you can produce mental image, and brain neural network the way that it's using all regions of your brain. Otherwise you just get distracted.
...had smaller grey matter density â" in other words they have smaller brains.
That's not synonymous at all.
"Halp my brains shrunk I forgot my own name."
Only cretins use multimedia devices intensively ?
Though it has been suggested by some that you cannot work out your brain to improve its performance, I have never believed this to be the case.
In my experience, constant problem solving improves one's cognitive abilities.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I'd hardly be surprised if the people they checked in this research were generally thicker people anyway.
Think about the typical person that uses a phone. Yeah, exactly, that image you had there. Usually they aren't the brightest people.
Most externalization of brain function generally leads to less cognition happening in the brain anyway. The brain is smart enough to be able to recognise computers, paper and other such things as an external memory system. And with digital systems, the need to look them up manually is less because you can easily just search for things by typing in to a little box and bam there is your content.
Only those that actively interact with said data should be "immune" to this shrinkage. Most people passively consume the content they write down, basically respeaking, rewriting or passing it on to others, not really processing it beyond that.
I would like to see them do this research on people that actively work with the data they note down on digital devices.
Just as they said, training on sets of data constantly can and does increase grey matter.
I jump between multiple devices at random and have no ill effects, stress or other such things, and generally have a pretty damn high IQ at that. (still suck at doing math stuff quickly in my head though!)
I could count more people than I have fingers that also do.
Since there was no mention of this, I assume it probably wasn't the case with these people, these are likely your average person that just passively transcribes data to digital devices.
I wonder if grey matter density is also correlated with an increasing number of children...
I don't think my mom's gf's wife is "into that." Wrong equipment in your story, man. You've got a long ways to go before you're ready for a career at Forum magazine.
From the summary: ... had smaller grey matter density — in other words they have smaller brains.
That is NOT what density means. Density is an intrinsic property, and does not in any way imply smaller size.
Also, the correlation between brain size and intelligence is very weak.
doing your part for the idiocracy
gross..
Girls between 20 and 24 seem to be seriously addicted to smart phones. I'm seeing them totally disabled and unable to stop and staying on those phones 24/7 and missing sleep and abandoning work and school and even skipping bathing to spend more time on their smart phones. We might as well open the rehabs now as a tide of these young women is about to become a huge problem. It is today's version of the video game addicts of a few years ago.
Porn shrinks your brain
Lack of sleep shrinks your brain
Multi-tasking shrinks your brain
Religion shrinks your brain
Fat shrinks your brain
Elevated Blood Sugar shrinks your brain
Stress shrinks your brain
Aging shrinks your brain
Alcohol shrinks your brain
Vegetarianism shrinks your brain
Type 2 diabetes shrinks your Brain
Cell phones shrink your brain
I think medical fear mongering is shrinking our brains.
And yes, I did search for "Climate Change is shrinking our brains." No hits. So there you go MSM; a perfectly good theme that no one has used yet.
...is here. This is not news. For proof, just walk along the average school route during the morning rush, kids everywhere aren't talking, they've got their faces firmly planted in Candy Crush on their super-flexible brand new hot pink iphones while their parents fight for parking spots as close to the gates as they think it's possible to get and still be able to open the doors (failing which the kids are pushed out through the sunroof). Technology and in particular Facebook has killed the art of communication and social media in general has turned the connected generation into a bunch of ignorant cunts. And woe betide the first one of you whippersnappers who clicks "Like"!
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Lower density. Meaning less neuronal connections. Meaning stupider people.
I know no one actually thinks for themselves these days, just wants to be spoon fed self-reassuring wikipedia pages, but I think you can connect the dots here.
Read the discussion! It's open access journal. Here, let me spoon feed you,
As hypothesized, the present study revealed a significant relationship between media multitasking and brain structure variations: Individuals who reported higher amounts of media multitasking had smaller gray matter density in the ACC. This association was significant at a stringent threshold (pFWE-correctedsensorimotor, nociceptive, higher cognitive and emotional/motivational processes
So there you go. They didn't measure brains. They measured specific brain part that shows significant correlation with cognition. And in people multi-tasking with many devices, guess what? That area was smaller.
Like in deaf people, the hearing part of the brain shrinks due to disuse. Here, the cognitive processing part of the brain shrinks probably due to the same reasons.
PS. If you want citations, the paper has those. Not that I actually expect people to read them.
Ok, this is getting a little ridicules but it appears people are not even willing to copy/paste article titles. Brains are not "shrinking". Part of brain associated with certain traits, like cognition is,
Higher media multi-tasking activity is associated with smaller gray-matter density in the anterior cingulate cortex
If you have no CLUE what "anterior cingulate cortex", you can't just delete it and substitute BRAIN in its place.
So how about "Multimedia Multitasking Associated with Structural Changes in the Brain" ?? "The Brain" didn't shrink. That specific cortex shrunk. As to what it doesn, it's in the article too!
Why didn't Soulskill and the other hippies at Slashdot cover the story about marijuana use causing a significant redistribution of grey matter? Shouldn't we be concerned that a drug can cause a significant change of our own brains?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21982932
Talk about sensasionalist headlines. "Multitasking can shrink your brain!" as a headline and somewhere in the text "but this research doesn't prove that in any way".
(posting this as AC because slashdot is acting weird and won't let me load stories while logged in... It's probably sensing the criticism)
It should be "Is Multimedia Multitasking Shrinking Human Brains?".
Finally, the decline of slashdot is scientifically explained!
what about those who have multiple screens. run music and tv all while going through 100's of email and making comments on slashdot?
Hurrrr! Get off my lawn!
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
I, Damaramu, shall regret this...
Wow, didn't know something like that would be possible.