Imagine for a moment that you are in London and stopped one of its iconic black cabs.
"Where do we go head, I asked the taxi driver with the accent typical worker from east London. You will specify the address."No problem. Let me introduce the satellite coordinates into my browser ..."
It sounds inappropriate, even fraud, than any driver in London that claims it can utter those words.After all, the ability of London taxi drivers to know every nook and shortcuts in the British capital is legendary
and the Internet effects on the brain.
Is still required to overcome a tough test, called "The Knowledge" before launching into the streets of London.
Internet effects on the brain
But with lower prices and the reliability of satellite navigation technology, an expert warns that we could lose our intellectual capacity to remember large amounts of information, such as the most difficult routes in the capital
and the Internet effects on the brain..
"The region of our brain that stores images of the space is quite developed in London taxi drivers," said Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains (Surface water: what the Internet is doing to our brains "."The longer your life working as a taxi driver, the larger is that part of your brain."Gareth Carr Mitchell told the World Service program on BBC radio, Digital Planet, a study has revealed that it is worrying how technology is affecting taxi drivers
and the Internet effects on the brain.."Almost certainly we will see a decrease or even disappearance, of that special quality in their brains."
However, it could be argued that having a global positioning system (GPS acronym) that can save months of study to pass "The Knowledge", and make our trip much easier, is very positive
and the Internet effects on the brain..
Not so, according to Carr's technology, especially
internet, has a lasting effect on our brain, disrupting our ability to perform certain tasks.
Internet and the Brain
In his view, the simpler become websites like Google, the less able we are to learn
and the Internet effects on the brain..
"The (study) met more interesting people who had no experience in using the network to which they were asked to use Google only for an hour a day, and begin to search and navigate."
The results showed how even a short time of use caused various patterns of brain activity."On one hand, many areas of the brain that are involved in decision-making is activated which means that it can help us keep our mind alert, which is very useful for people.""But it also found the type of activity that makes it difficult to concentrate. If you are always solving problems and making decisions, you can not have peace of mind you get when you read a book
and the Internet effects on the brain.."
The key to staying focused, says Carr, is perhaps the hardest things to them, just the opposite of what they intend to software designers around the world competing to make their programs easier to use than its rivals.
"In many ways I admire Google, but I think we have a very limited view about how we should use our minds."
"They have this machine vision that everything revolves around the most efficient way to find the information you need
and the Internet effects on the brain.."
Adding that this also applies to projects like Google Books, designed to bring knowledge to a wide audience and to the world's knowledge more accessible.
"Scan only part of the books with the idea of becoming more content to its search engine."What prevails is the idea of the information supplied in pieces, as anecdotal evidence
and the Internet effects on the brain.. When you go to a page from Google Books not you get into a lengthy narrative. "
"Short-circuit in our brain"
In his book, Carr cites an article by commentator Bill Thompson technology that describes a simple experiment in which a puzzle to be solved using a computer program. The researchers gave half the participants a "good" program that gave them clues, was intuitive and helped them to achieve their goal.
The other half tried to overcome the same test but with a software program that do not put things easier.
"People who had less friendly software with the user had to struggle to solve the riddle and thus learned much more than those who had the program manageable," said Carr
and the Internet effects on the brain..Months later, the people who solved the puzzle with uncooperative software still remembering how to fix it, unlike the group that was available to the program that helped them. "Carr concludes that this simple experiment indicates that as software becomes more user friendly, putting things easier, we risk losing the ability to learn things, "shorting" in our
brain.
"If we consider that we are increasingly reliant on software for all types of intellectual tasks, from searching for information, to our socialization, we should start to worry that every time we have less space, as individuals, to act our own
and the Internet effects on the brain.. "
