Running head: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING OUR BRAINS 1

How Technology is Changing our Brains

(and what we might want to do about it)

Kristine B. Robertson

Western Oregon University

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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING OUR BRAINS

How Technology is Changing our Brains

(and what we might want to do about it)

To describe the pace of technological change as rapid is an understatement. Just think:

ten years ago the iPhone had not yet been released, while today nine out of ten of the parents

sitting through my daughters choir rehearsal have their heads bowed in adoration before their

smartphones. Ever faster computers, online classes (such as the one I am writing this essay for),

and open source software that allows my sister to monitor her sons blood sugar on her

smartwatch are a few examples of things once thought unlikely that are now here. We can

access a vast array of information, video chat with our friends, and order goods from around the

world, all at the click of a button. It is exciting and exhilarating, convenient and captivating, but

at times also exhausting and overwhelming and even isolating. Our use of technology, for all its

wonders and enchantments, is, like any other tool, one which shapes its users. As we use it, it

shapes us by rewiring our brains. While there are undoubtedly benefits to this change, there are

also serious drawbacks. For those who teach, who have the responsibility of guiding and

nurturing the next generation, it is essential to reflect on what is happening to our brains, to

weigh up the benefits and costs involved, and, having reflected and weighed, to promote a

balance of on- and off-line activity.

Whats happening to our brains?

Neuroplasticity

In preparing for this essay, I read six books about what technology might be doing to our

brains. Three of them were overwhelmingly positive (Cathy Davidsons Now You See It, Steven

Johnsons Everything is Good for You, and Clay Shirkys Cognitive Surplus), one highlighted

both positives and negatives (Gary Small and Gigi Vorgans iBrain), and two expressed alarm
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(Nicholas Carrs The Shallows and Maggie Jacksons Distracted). Yet despite this wide range of

responses to the digital age we are living in, all of the books agreed on one thing: our brains are

changing as a result of our interactions with technology. Although some books were exhilarated

by these changes and others viewed them as heralding the end of civilization as we know it, none

disputed the fact that technology is changing how we think. The reason for this broad consensus

is that, due to modern imaging technology, we can actually see what happens to the brain when

exposed to new experiences, and what we see is that the brain changes. The word used to

describe this ability to change is neuroplasticity.

In iBrain (2008) Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan define the brains plasticity as its ability

to be malleable and ever-changing in response to stimulation and the environment (p. 8). As the

brain encounters new things, such as information, tasks, and experiences, it develops neural

pathways. How this happens is a complex process involving neurons, synapses, and cells. This

plasticity is especially present in young children (hence their ability to learn complex things like

language so easily), but adult brains retain a certain level of elasticity. For this reason, Small and

Vorgan state that whether we be young or old, the stimulation we expose our minds to every

day is critical in determining how our brains work (p. 9). This means that each mental

experience we have (from making a new friend to arduously practicing the piano to living

through a traumatic event) changes the way our brains function, and experiences that are

repeated particularly affect how we think.

The mental stimulation of interest in this essay is computer technologies and the impact

experiences such as computer games, internet research, and social media might have on our

brains. Small and Vorgan (2008) describe a study they conducted which looked specifically at

the impact of using Google. Using an MRI scanner, they scanned the brains of people who had
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no Googling experience. The subjects were scanned twiceonce during the initial exposure to

Googling and once after five hours of Googling practice. What the researchers discovered is

that, after using Google one hour a day for five days, a specific region (the dorsolateral prefrontal

cortex) of the subjects brains was activated. This region had not been activated five days

earlier. Just five hours of practice had rewired their brains. The implication is that, given the

multitude of hours we spend using technologies such as the internet, our brains are definitely

being changed. The challenge is to determine is in what ways are our brains being changed and

whether or not these changes are positive.

Possible Positive #1: Problem-solving skills

One possible positive outcome of our interactions with computer technologies is the

chance to develop problem-solving skills. Computer games in particular may offer an

opportunity to develop these skills. In Everything Bad is Good for You (2005), Steven Johnson

contends that, contrary to general opinion, popular culture is good for our brains. He surveys the

worlds of gaming, TV, the internet, and film, highlighting how these have evolved from

relatively unsophisticated entertainment into complex mediums that challenge our minds. In his

chapter on computer games, he points out that games are hard, and that the persistence and

delayed gratification they require are rarely discussed. In gaming, one has to constantly fill in

gaps where information is missing and this filling in develops problem-solving skills. Johnson

sees games as being about finding order and meaning in the world, and making decisions that

help create that order (p. 62). According to Johnson, playing computer games helps develop

problem-solving skills, skills that are essential in our complex world.

A similar point is made by Cathy Davidson in Now You See It (2011). Davidson says that

we have focused too much on the possible negative effects of gaming: since the tragedy at
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Columbine, the argument about computer games has been framed in such a way as to highlight

the negative while ignoring the positive. She asks her readers to look for the possible positives

of gaming, and one of these positives is the development of problem-solving skills. Davidson

describes the work of Jane McGonigal, a game designer who contends that a benefit of games is

that they allow players to repeatedly risk failure before experiencing success. In real life

taking so many risks is untenable, whereas in the safe world of the game, players have ample

opportunity to take risks which allow them to develop skills in decision making and strategy.

Davidson cites research which shows that gamers have the following qualities: they are oriented

to the bottom line, understand that diversity is powerful, thrive on change, enjoy learning, and

marinate on the edge. She notes that these are essential qualities in our digital age (p. 158).

This, then, is one potential positive effect of computer technologies on our brains: playing

computer games wires our brains to be able to take on the problems of our complex and digital

age.

Possible Positive #2: The Collaborative Brain

In our digital age we increasingly try to solve real-world problems by turning to the

internet. Whether the question is a simple one (What vegetables can a guinea pig eat?) or a

complex one (What is the evidence for climate change?), many of us instinctively reach for a

smartphone or laptop to find the answer. Clay Shirky views the abundance of information

available to us on the internet as a product of what he terms cognitive surplus (2010).

According to Shirky, the combination of abundant leisure time and the new technologies

available to us (technologies which allow us to participate in the creation and distribution of

knowledge) have led to this surplus of knowledge. The adjective Shirky chooses to describe this

abundance is transformative (p. 140). He says, Increasing the number of things you have can
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be useful, but increasing the amount of knowledge you have can be transformative (p. 140).

Because we have time and technology, we are now able access so much more information and so

many more people. When we have a problem, we no longer dredge up the bit of relevant

knowledge already lurking somewhere deep within our brains, consult a few experts (whether

they be grandpa and his friends or a few articles in Encyclopedia Britannica), and make a plan of

attack; rather, we tap into the vast array of the worlds knowledge and many of its people via a

few clicks and keystrokes. There is knowledge in our heads, but there is also knowledge out

there on the web. While collaboration is not new, the scale of collaboration has increased

manifold.

How this collaborative approach plays out in the world of work is explored by Davidson

(2011). Using IBM as an example, Davidson describes the modern, decentralized workplace.

This workplace looks more like a multiplayer online game than an efficient 20th century factory.

She describes it this way:

Rather than aiming at uniformity and standardization as regulated or enforced by

institutional hierarchy, this form of crowdsourced collaboration is based on the idea that

if you allow people to contribute in as many different ways as they want, offering points

of view as distinctive as possible, the whole outcome is more innovative, stronger, better,

and more ambitious than if you start with a goal or a mission and then structure each

contribution as a deliberate step toward fulfillment of that goal. From the point of view

of twentieth-century management theory, collaboration by difference is chaotic. It

shouldnt work. Except that, well, the proof is in the digital pudding. (p. 193)

In day-to-day work, this scenario involves working with people across different time zones,

meetings held using video conferencing and messaging simultaneously, and corporate jams,
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i.e., virtual meetings to crowdsource ideas from employees.

In summary, according to Shirky and Davidson, the positive is that in this highly-

collaborative world, what can be accomplished together is far greater than the sum of individual

contributions. In effect, technology has enabled our brains to be supercharged by interactions

with many other brains, with the result that we are able to creatively confront the worlds

problems together. And yes, one can see how playing computer games might hone the skills

needed for this kind of workplace.

Possible Negative #1: Social disconnection

Technology has allowed us to be networked to other individuals and in this sense has

created a new, virtual social environment. However, some writers claim that this new world of

social networking actually leads to increased isolation and disconnection. Small and Vorgan

discuss this disconnection in iBrain (2008). In particular, they express concern that children are

failing to develop social skills due to lack of face-to-face contact because of increased computer

use. They contend that cyber-interactions of the type described above (those using computer-

mediated contact) are not a substitute for face-to-face interactions. Not only can children fail to

develop social skills, adults who dont make a point of using their social skills they presently

have may find that their social skills decline as they spend more time in virtual environments. It

seems that the use it or lose it mantra applies to cognitive muscle as much as to abdominals.

This concern with social disconnection is also addressed in Maggie Jacksons Distracted:

The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (2008). Jacksons book focuses on how

technology splits our attention. Technologies often demand that we split our attention between

various tasks and topics. Jackson sees this split attention as a threat to society because it leads to

surface thinking. She writes:

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[I]n the years leading into a dark age, societies often exhibit an inability to perceive or act

upon a looming threat, such as a declining resource. Twilight cultures begin to show a

preference for veneer and form, not depth and content; a stubborn blindness to the

consequences of actions, from the leadership on down. In other words, an epidemic

erosion of attention is a sure sign of an impending dark age. (p. 26)

In other words, our use of technology is changing our ability to pay attention and this change will

be to our detriment.

Jackson discusses several concerns she has about this change and one of these is that it is

our ability to pay attention to each other is diminishing. She explains that what has happened is

that the virtual has infiltrated real life (p. 47). This is quite clearly seen in social media, such

as Facebook and Twitter. No longer is the virtual separate from reality; it impinges on it. In this

world where virtual and real are melded together, social relations can become game-like with

people being the pawns. Virtual social relationships thus become something to manage and

administrate. Friendship becomes a sort of game. And in this virtual world, if a relationship

doesnt flourish, it is very easy for the people involved to simply disappear from each others

view. Relationships can become ephemeral, fleeting. As Jackson eloquently puts it, We are

ghosts moving in and out of each others consciousness, often silently but sometimes with a

shriek and a howl (p. 58). It seems to me that Jackson is implying that, because of its virtual

nature, social networking makes it that much easier to objectify other people and see them

merely as serving us. Of course, this happens in the non-virtual world as well, but its much

easier to ditch a Facebook friend than the person sitting across the table from you. Perhaps in

our digital age, our connections are more plentiful, but less deep, less lasting. This social

disconnection is one possible negative impact of computer technologies on our brains.

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Possible Negative #2: Shallow thinking

Another possible negative is that our digital age may not only be affecting our ability to

relate deeply, but also our ability to think deeply. Nicholas Carrs The Shallows (2010) reads as

a lament for books and the mind they create. Carr acknowledges that this reading mind is not a

natural one, but he lauds it as one which leads to deep thought, saying that [a]s the book came

to be the primary means of exchanging knowledge and insight, its intellectual ethic became the

foundation of our culture (p. 76). He argues that a shift from print to the screen influences our

capacity for sustained attention and impacts how deeply we immerse ourselves into arguments.

According to Carr, our embrace of technology has rejected the intellectual tradition of solitary,

single-minded concentration and replaced it with a juggling act in which we manage snippets of

information and chatter (p. 114). In other words, we do not concentrate, analyze, and read texts

in-depth the way we used to.

A similar argument is made by Maggie Jackson. In Distracted (2008), Jackson contends

that when we read online, we do not do so deeply; instead, we skate across prose, reading only

to get information, rather than to be changed (p. 171). Students, she says, do not know how to

separate the wheat from the chaff nor how to thoughtfully use what they harvesttheyare

often stuck on the veneer of the information world (p. 163). There is much information out

there, and doubtless some wisdom as well, but Google only rarely helps us find it. Students (and

the rest of us, one supposes) rarely probe deeply to find consequential information. Not only are

we not searching deeply enough, once we find the information we are looking for, its very

format, with hypertext and dismembered snippets, makes deep reading very difficult.

In short, both Carr and Jackson are fearful that our online reading does not develop our

capacity for deep reading. Without the ability to read deeply, we are not able to sustain the kind
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of focused attention on which our culture has been built. Our brains are changing, our thinking

is becoming shallower, and this is something to be concerned about.

Weighing these changes

In summary, when considering the impact of technology on the human brain, possible

positive effects include improved problem-solving skills and the emergence of the collaborative,

networked brain. Possible negatives include increased social disconnection and shallower

reading and thinking. The authors considered in this essay generally fall into two groups: those

who are enthused about the ways in which technology is changing our brains (who focus on the

positives) and those who are fearful of these changes (who focus on the negatives). As I read,

there were times when I wondered to what extent these reactions were simply a matter of

personality, with the optimists bubbling enthusiastically and the pessimists gloomily predicting

societal collapse.

Thinking about it further, though, I realized that what is more likely at play is differing

values, differing ideals. Perhaps at root is the question of what we, as individuals and as a

society, hold to be most important. Is it problem-solving ability? Collaboration? Face-to-face

social connection? Deep reading and thinking? For those who prioritize problem-solving ability

and collaboration, the way our brains are changing is an exciting development. For those who

prioritize face-to-face social connection and deep reading and thinking, the way our brains are

changing is viewed in a more negative light.

I think most of us though, would agree that all of these brain skills are desirable. As an

educator, I want my students to develop their problem-solving abilities, take advantage of the

collaborative brain, experience meaningful face-to-face relationships, and read and think deeply.

My question is whether or not its possible to have it all. Do we actually have to choose between
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these skills? If, as noted earlier, use it or lose it applies to brain muscle perhaps the key is to

exercise the brain in a variety of ways so as to maintain a balance of brain abilities.

What can we do?

As educators, there are several steps that we can and should take to take to help our

students develop and maintain a full range of brain skills in our digital age. It seems that the

primary challenge is not that of convincing students to use technologygiven access, students

(particularly young ones) seem to take to technology like ducks to water. The challenge seems

to lie in figuring out how to maintain traditional brain skills that can be weakened by

technology use. One possible answer lies in trying to find a balance between on- and off-line

activities. The following two suggestions are by no means exhaustive or conclusive; they are

merely possibilities for educators to consider. Obviously, the implementation of them will vary

depending on the unique learning situation of each student.

First of all, to help students develop a full range of thinking skills, educators should

persist with teaching deep reading and strong writing. These are skills that do not come naturally

to most of us, and for this reason they are hard to learn and hard to teach: a multiple-choice test

is so much easier than an essay test, both for student and teacher! However, I think that Carr and

Jackson make a strong case that the kind of thinking developed through learning these skills is

important. In business, in government, in education, and in many other arenas, the ability to

think deeply and critically is crucial. Losing this ability is, in my opinion, too great a loss to

society. This doesnt necessarily mean continuing to teach reading and writing exactly as they

have been taught in the past, as if the digital world doesnt exist. Rather, both old and new ways

of thinking should be taught, rather like an immigrant learning a new language while retaining

their mother tongue. In my opinion, the cost of abandoning deep reading and strong writing is
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potentially too high. However, neither should one stubbornly cling to the old at the expense of

the new. Students need to navigate both worlds of thinking. For some questions, it is entirely

appropriate to skim the internet for information and collaborate with others to arrive at a

solution. Other questions require in-depth reading of extended texts and a more formal, stylized

form of communication. Part of a teachers role is to help students identify which kind of

thinking is appropriate to question being asked. Another part is ensuring that students develop a

full range of critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, both old and new, on which they can

call as they face lifes challenges.

Secondly, educators should make it a priority to provide students with opportunities for

face-to-face interactions. Reading body language, using appropriate tones of voice, making eye

contact, and carrying on a real time conversation continue to be important skills for work and

life. Without the opportunity to develop these skills, students will be at a disadvantage. In a

classroom setting opportunities to develop these skills abound: group discussions, group

projects, and recess all provide the chance to practice face-to-face skills. Targeted social skills

practice, such as that provided by speech and language therapists, is also possible in a face-to-

face environment. For those teaching in an online environment, there are also ways to help

students maintain a balance between online and face-to-face contact. One of these is by assigning

work that requires face-to-face interaction. Examples of such assignments include requiring

face-to-face volunteer work and having students conduct face-to-face interviews. Another

possible approach (not face-to-face per se, but nonetheless possibly helpful for developing face-

to-face skills) would be having students discuss and collaborate in pairs via Skype or similar

technologies. There are doubtless other ways to provide face-to-face opportunities for online

students so that they are encouraged to continue to develop these vital skills.
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In conclusion, whether we like it or not, our brains are changing. They always have been

and always will be. In our technological world, the pace of change is very dramatic, and for that

reason, stressful, but unless we withdraw entirely from the digital world, we cannot have brains

unaffected by it. A better option than either withdrawal from or uncritical embrace of this brain-

altering technological age is to seek balance. With reflection and determination, we can work to

balance our on- and off-line worlds and bring the best of the past into the present. By continuing

to teach students to read and write well and by encouraging face-to-face interactions, we can

hold onto the benefits of the pre-digital age, while at the same time enjoying the opportunities

our technologies afford us. We can teach our students to revel in the breadth of collaborative

knowledge offered by the internet and the problem-solving skills developed by playing computer

games, while at the same time helping them foster the critical thinking society so needs and the

deep relationships many of us desire. We can do our best to teach for a balanced brain.
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References

Carr, N. (2010). The shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains. New York, NY: W.W.

Norton.

Davidson, C. (2011). Now you see it. New York, NY: Viking.

Jackson, M. (2008). Distracted: the erosion of attention and the coming dark age. Amherst,

NY: Prometheus Books.

Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you: how todays popular culture is actually

making us smarter. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.

Shirky, C. (2010). Cognitive surplus: Creativity and generosity in a connected age. New York,

NY: Penguin.

Small, D. and Vorgan. G. (2008). iBrain: surviving the technological alteration of the modern

mind. New York, NY: HarperCollins.