The Internet Will Make You Smarter

Posted by RP

October 19, 2008

Finally, the truth is revealed

Functional
MRI brain scans show how searching the Internet dramatically engages
brain neural networks (in red). The image on the left displays brain
activity while reading a book; the image on the right displays activity
while engaging in an Internet search. (Credit: UCLA Newsroom)

The University of California at Los Angeles this week gave us the perfect antidote to Nick Carr’s musings in The Atlantic about how the Internet is turning us into multitasking scatterbrains with diminishing attention spans.

A group of scientists found that searching the Internet doesn’t make
computer-savvy, middle-aged and older adults stupid. It actually
triggers key centers in the brain that control decision making and
complex reasoning. In other words, we might not have to resort to word
puzzles and pinochle to fend off senility. … Full Article on Surfing makes you smarter.

As a 63 year old man I read this article with more than a little interest. I’ve often wondered if my continual surfing, on-line tinkering and just plain game playing was good for my brain or bad for my brain. Interesting results.

I’ve published a number of articles recently about seniors and retirees making money online, some of them much older than me, so I pretty much thought that being active and entrepreneurial online was good for you … but it’s nice to see an authoritative report.

My dear wife also runs several blogs. The other day she had a strange email. Upon opening it she found it was from a long-lost cousin in California, packed with news of that cousin’s life and updates on severla other cousins livng nearby who ha dbeen out of touch.

How did my wife get “found”? You’d probably guess one of the younger nieces or nephews searched and found my spouse online. Well, you’d be wrong.

The grandfather of them all, our 93 year old uncle read something in the newspaper about Google, typed his name into the search box one day just to see what happened and was surprised to see his name ‘in print” in a blog post my wife had published.

Apparently, if you are 93, or even younger, you too can benefit.

Time for Some of Those Boring Resolutions

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