Online Time Can Hobble Brain's Important Work

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130920094627.htm
This article is about how using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram can cause your
brain to process information at a slower rate. The article starts of by saying that, “Contrary to common
wisdom, an idle brain is in fact doing important work -- and in the age of constant information
overload, it's a good idea to go offline on a regular basis...” The article then introduces Erik Fransén,
who is a researcher at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He found that a
brain that is exposed to social media can often be “hobbled by information overload.” Because of this,
less information is stored in your memory. He continues to explain that working memory, or what is
generally referred to as short-term memory, is what we use when we are communicating. Working
memory allows us to filter out unnecessary information and find what memories we want to use for
communicating. It also allows us to store what we want, and forget what we do not need while online.
However, Fransén also says that short-term memory is a limited resource.
According to Fransén, at any given time, your working memory can store three to four items. If you try
to remember more items, our capacity for processing information begins to fail. On Facebook, where
people generally look at several posts, pictures, and videos in a short amount of time, the brain is most
likely to be overwhelmed by information, reducing your working memory capacity. Therefore, it is
generally a good idea to try to let your brain rest for some time each day, instead of always using
technology. When your brain is idle, memory is consolidated and information is transferred into
memory. These two processes are necessary for our brains to retain its ability to process information.
The article concludes by stating, "When we max out our active states with technology equipment, just
because we can, we remove from the brain part of the processing, and it can't work."
I picked this article to summarize because it greatly applies to my life. I am surrounded by technology
and I can usually be found in my room, sitting in front of my laptop and either watching some kind of
video, going on my email or on Facebook, talking to my friends on Skype, or playing a game. I was very
interested to see what effect this could have on my memory. I ended up learning not only about the
effects of using the Internet on your working memory, but also about memory itself. For example,
before reading this article, I was not aware of the fact that your short-term memory can store three to
four items at any time. Also, I did not know that working memory has a direct correlation with the
brain’s processing power and speed. Now that I am better informed about this topic, I will make an
effort to spend less time on the computer and relax. I will also try to limit my use of social networks to
a few times a week instead of a few times a day. Overall, I think that this was a very interesting article
and I learned a lot from it.