Juggling Brain

I kept a media diary for the last 24 hours and what I found is that I agree with the juggler brain theory in some aspects but disagree with others.   I found that I am checking my devices more than I originally thought.  While I am not actively tweeting or posting Instagram pictures, I am passively being engulfed into social media.  I am looking at multiple social medias multiple times during a one hour time period.  Now this brings us to the “Juggler’s Brain” that Carr presents in his passage from The Shallows.

Carr states that the Net will be the single most mind-altering technology that we have to date.  The way the Internet works is different than reading a book or another written piece because of how the neurons fire in the brain.  One of the biggest arguments is that the brain is only scattered by what is on the screen only to leave us more distracted that we were.  This was very similar to what I found with my diary, because I found myself running into is getting caught up with the Net even though I was trying to find a simple recipe or a small task. 

I agree with Carr’s claims about attention, but disagree with his deeper thought.  I feel that my thought process has not changed over time and I have been using social medias and the Net for the past few years.  The thing I have noticed that has been altered the most is my attention.  Improving my multitasking skills is something I think I have improved on, much like Carr claimed, but I find myself in situations where I am jumping around in conversation with people.

Overall, I think that the Net is in some ways altering our brain for the worse.  The brain is in theory getting smarter with the use of the Net, but that is only if we are defining intelligence by the Net’s own criteria.  There is scientific information that the brain is being altered through the use of the Net., that can not be argued, but I personally have not noticed a problem in any of my analysis, critical thinking, or problem solving skills. It would be cool to see how much time per day or week is needed to completely alter the brain.  The following link is some more information about this topic.  Interesting read.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm