“Ayan, kaka-computer mo yan,” you hear your mother say after you complain about a headache, eye strain, or even a cough. Before you roll your eyes at her and defend your excessive Internet usage, I’ve got some news for you.
New research reveals that frequent or excessive Internet usage can alter how your brain works. American, Australian, and European scientists have found that people who use the Internet heavily perform worse at memory tasks and are more easily distracted.
The scientists put hundreds of participants through memory and cognitive tests, as well as brain scans, as reported by Futurism.com.
Western Sydney University’s Joseph Firth, the scientist who led the project, talked in a press release about how the Internet is changing the structure and the abilities of the human brain.
Apparently, the constant notifications from the Internet are keeping our attention divided at all times. This decreases our ability to concentrate on a single task for a long stretch of time.
There’s less need to remember things in this day and age because if we need anything, we just ask the Internet.
However, in this digital age, do we really have a choice? Can we not rely on the Internet? The Internet has created and provided jobs for a lot of people. Having an Internet presence is even a job on its own nowadays. In fact, you’re reading this article and learning about these negative effects on the Internet right now.
As alarming as it might sound, we can’t escape the fact that the Internet is part of our lives and that it’s here to stay. But maybe turn off those notifications when you’re at work, yes?
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