Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

I have to admit, recently, if text is not staring at me from a screen I become uninterested very quickly.  Although, from reading about this upcoming book, I might have to actually read a book, or find a Kindle to read it on.  The book is called “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” by Gary Small.  Small is a neuroscientist from UCLA.  The idea of actually reading the book somewhat defeats the point made in the book, however.

The book says that through technology, we are learning to use more parts of our brains.  Through doing simple things most of us probably take for granted such as sending text messages and Internet searching our brains become “more adept at filtering information and making snap decisions.”  The book also claims that technology is increasing creativity and and accelerating learning.  Sounds pretty good to me.

Small claims that while all this is well and good, we also need to be adept at talking to people face-to-face.  He says that while technology increases our brain activity, it hampers our social interactions if we spend too much time with it.  I haven’t picked up the book yet, but I wonder what it says about talking to other people through video such as Skype.  Although, it’d be scary if that was okay.  I don’t want to live in a world where Wall•E is true to life.

Read [Reuters]