CINCINNATI, Ohio (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Take a look around the room you’re in right now. Most of us have smart phones in our hands, within arm’s length, or tucked into a pants’ pocket. For years, researchers have made a case that smart technology may be bad for our brain power. Now, a team of researchers from the U.S. and Canada want you to know what they’ve discovered about digital devices and dumbing down.
Information at the touch of our fingertips or many touches of our fingertips.
Some scientists have theorized that scrolling quickly through multiple open apps makes us unfocused. Others have said that young people, especially, lose cognition, or brain power when machines do the work for them.
Researchers studied four dozen published reports on smart tech use. They say despite the headlines …
“The arguments that they are making us dumber don’t hold up,” explained Anthony Chemero, PhD, a cognitive science researcher at University of Cincinnati.
Instead, Chemero suggests smart technology makes us smarter.
“It’s because what it’s doing is enhancing our abilities to do smart things. It enhances our ability to do smart things by kind of offloading some of the tasks to a piece of technology,” Chemero, told Ivanhoe.
It’s technology that calculates, stores information and memorizes.
“Young people now don’t know anyone’s phone number. They might know their parents’ phone numbers. Sometimes they don’t even know their own phone number. So again, all that memory storage that we devoted to remembering phone numbers, we can now use for something else,” said Chemero.
For example, learning a new language or how to cook or draw. While there are drawbacks to smartphone use, like tech neck, sore digits, and disrupted sleep patterns, Chemero says making us dumb is not one.
Professor Chemero also said there are consequences to using certain types of apps. For example, some social media sites have been thought to decrease teens’ self-confidence and well-being—but again, that smart tech use is not impacting cognition.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor; and Kirk Manson, Videographer
Sources:
https://techjury.net/blog/smartphone-usage-statistics/#gref
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/smartphones-dont-make-us-dumb.html
https://healthtalk.unchealthcare.org/the-effects-of-smartphone-usage-on-the-brain/
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-smart-technology-making-us-dumb/
https://www.npr.org/2015/05/20/407956931/debate-is-smart-technology-making-us-dumb
https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/digital-technology/
https://www.t3.com/us/news/7-skills-you-can-learn-with-nothing-but-your-smartphone
MAKING US DUMB?SMART PHONES:
REPORT #2941
BACKGROUND: An estimated 97 percent of Americans currently own a cellphone of some kind. Smart phones ownership shows greater variation based on age, household income, and educational attainment. Along with cell phones, Americans own a variety of other information devices. About three-quarters of U.S. adults currently own a desktop or laptop computer, while roughly half own a tablet. Reliance on smartphones for online access is mostly common among younger adults, lower-income Americans, and those with a high school education or less. There has been a steady decline of those who use smart phones as their primary means of online access at home in recent years. Only about 15 percent of American adults are “smartphone-only” internet users. This means they own a smartphone, but do not have traditional home broadband service.
(Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/)
SIGNS OF CELL PHONE ADDICTION: There is constant improvement being done with cell phones by expanding upon their functionalities, which in turn increases the likelihood of overuse and addiction. According to the PEW Research Center, 67 percent of smartphone owners have admitted to checking their phone for calls or messages when their phone didn’t vibrate or ring. This is one major sign of dependency and should serve as a warning. Other signs to watch out for are a need to use the cell phone more and more often to achieve the same desired effect; persistent failed attempts to use cell phone less often; preoccupation with smartphone use; turns to cell phone when experiencing unwanted feelings such as anxiety or depression; need for newest cell phone, more applications, or increased use; and withdrawal (anger, tension, depression, irritability, restlessness). Overuse of a smartphone can also result in several physical problems that may cause permanent damage or be difficult to treat, including digital eye strain, neck problems, increased illnesses due to germs, and car accidents.
(Source: https://www.psychguides.com/behavioral-disorders/cell-phone-addiction/signs-and-symptoms/)
A NEW TOOL FOR RESEARCH: Researchers are exploring whether digital footprints from smartphones can be used to assess personality and mental health status. Samuel Gosling, PhD, professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and other researchers, have started leveraging this new form of data collection to explore whether smartphone usage footprints can be used to accurately assess personality traits such as extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness. Psychologists are also exploring whether smartphones have the potential to help clinicians identify when people are at higher risk of certain mental health conditions. Participants consent to having their smartphone patterns followed by a downloadable app or by some other method of collecting information. In one recent study, psychologists and computer scientists analyzed data from more than 600 adults in Germany that included a wide range of behavior patterns, such as when they started using their phones in the morning, how far they traveled each day, which apps they used, and how many calls they received. “I don’t think psychologists could have imagined a more ideal tool for research,” Gosling said.
(Source: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/04/feature-smartphones)
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Angela Koenig
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