Web addiction and brain change

FranzB said:

That is true. A long time ago i often had discussions about that with a geologist friend of mine. He thought we would know soon how the brain functions. My philosophical counter was how you could understand the brain by using that same brain. But who knows.

I see what you are saying.

I've always been fascinated by how it is possible to make ever more accurate devices/tools, using the previous generation's less accurate devices/tools.

Consider gears.
Someone had to hand "carve" the first gear and then using that, they (or someone else) created a more accurate gear and so on.

My friend often says, "if you bang a few rocks together in certain ways and for long enough, you can create any manufactured object."

msdos622wasfun,

Even the worst of addictions remains a choice. It doesn't matter whether it originated by birth, environment or any other factor. One may not control or choose what they are born with or adapt to, but they do choose whether to retain or overcome it/them, therefore the phrase "can't help it" is invalid.

seekermeister said:

msdos622wasfun,

Even the worst of addictions remains a choice. It doesn't matter whether it originated by birth, environment or any other factor. One may not control or choose what they are born with or adapt to, but they do choose whether to retain or overcome it/them, therefore the phrase "can't help it" is invalid.

Bingo well said!

Bertison said:

Any addictive personality (yes, they do exist) will eventually find something that floats their specific neural boat.

I have an 18-year old grandson with Asperger's Syndrome. Some years ago, I built him his first PC. Now he is studying Computer networks and security (CISCO) and will take a 'gap Year' to work in that fioeld, before attending Uni. He spends many hours in his room, building Virtual Networks. Is he addicted? No - he does not socialise well, he interacts poorly with others he does not know, but the use of computers brought out his genius -level intelligence (MENSA - measured) and gave it direction.

I would resist any attempt to scan his head!

I think the new technology is definitely having some effect on us but probably for the good as well as for detrimental afeects - perhaps this has some bearing -

Multitasking may harm the social and emotional development of tweenage girls, researchers say

I think too much of anything is the basic problem and although we do seem to be trending towards an ever dependent reliance on technology it does make sense to avoid a complete dependence. There are signs that some people are becoming less able to focus or concentrate on single areas and this might be attributed to the way information is much more 'bitified' than it used to be. I think we are all perhaps liable to an addiction of some sort as the collecting trait seems to be universal in humans - how much of that downloaded 'free' content do we actually need?

Hi, I'm new around here, sorry for jumping into the thread. When I discovered the 'Internet', around 1993, I'd originally been interested in BBSs. A friend gave me an old modem and together with my Amiga I'd log into domestic telephones connected to personal computers and very shakily leave messages on something along the lines of this forum, mostly technical stuff much of which I didn't understand. It was fascinating. I was like a kid with a new train set and most people I showed this to thought I was a kid. They'd also thought I was a kid when I showed them my ZX80.
New websites were announced in magazines back then and Microsoft didn't believe the Internet would take off.
Technology has been around a lot longer even than farming and I don't mean phenotypical stuff and now I read there's only one days supply of food in supermarkets here in Britain at any time, an awful state of affairs, so at present we're completely screwed without it. The distortion in thinking astounds me, much like the evolution of roads; over two thousand years of technology to get them level and then someone puts bumps on them.
Anyway, the same dreadful dependency now exists with the Internet.
My expectation for the Internet as a knowledge and communication medium is very different from those who have been born post-Internet and no doubt their expectations will model it to their needs more fundamentally than I... Shopping, I am told is a cultural activity and the Internet is perfect for 'shopaholics'. I think it much more likely that 'The Media' is to blame for the aforementioned 'short-circuitry' and not the brain nor indeed the Internet itself. It has not taken long for the Internet to be hi-jacked. I'm not referring to 'convenience' here, but the sheer ferocious mental weight and dependence on advertising and commerce; perhaps I am not as 'immersed' as some would like me to be.
I'm wary that portraying certain 'activities' as 'damaging' is a dangerously subjective viewpoint however I don't like the current deployment and dependency, it's a 'house of cards' and if it does come crashing down or it's denied, there will be some fairly dysfunctional people around. I'm sure I've a pencil here somewhere... Thanks for reading, peace and love.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_save_the_internet/?tta