Your Brain on Digital Gadgets: Does it Negatively Affect Qigong Practice?

Note: I’m posting this article in practice section because I want to stimulate discussion on the effect of cyber-addictive behavior on qigong and meditation. Obviously, I feel Tao practice will help to ground and integrate the influx of cyber-info. But the reverse question is interesting: are you practicing just to “hold your ground”, is cyber-junk slowing down your spiritual evolution or speeding it up? – Michael

Note the list of related articles/links at the end.

EXCERPT:

“Just as food nourishes us and we need it for life, so too — in the 21st
century and the modern age — we need technology. You cannot survive without
the communication tools; the productivity tools are essential,” he says.
“And yet, food has pros and cons to it. We know that some food is Twinkies
and some food is Brussels sprouts. And we know that if we overeat, it causes
problems. Similarly, after 20 years of glorifying technology as if all
computers were good and all use of it was good, science is beginning to
embrace the idea that some technology is Twinkies and some technology is
Brussels sprouts.”

————

DIGITAL OVERLOAD: YOUR BRAIN ON GADGETS
Fresh Air
August 24, 2010

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107

The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as
what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the
University of California, San Diego.

And The New York Times reports that the average computer user checks 40
websites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour.

“It’s an onslaught of information coming in today,” says Times technology
journalist Matt Richtel. “At one time a screen meant maybe something in your
living room. But now it’s something in your pocket so it goes everywhere —
it can be behind the wheel, it can be at the dinner table, it can be in the
bathroom. We see it everywhere today.”

Richtel has spent the past several months researching the toll technology
and “information juggling” are taking on our lives — and our brains. His
series “Your Brain On Computers” describes how multitasking on computers and
digital gadgets affects the way people process information — and how
quickly they can then become distracted.

The Brain In The Wild

Recently Richtel accompanied several scientists, all of whom are studying
the brain, on a weeklong retreat to a remote corner of Utah. The rules of
the vacation? No cell phones, no Internet access and no technological
distractions.

“Partly they wanted to go on vacation and see it through a neurologic lens,”
he says. “They wanted to take a look at what was happening to their brain
and their perspectives — and by extension, ours — as they got off the
grid.”

The scientists were divided in half about how they felt about information
overload. Two of the five — whom Richtel termed “the believers” — thought
that the constant stream of data coming into their lives was making it
increasingly difficult to focus and concentrate, and that heading back into
nature could help them recharge. The other three neuroscientists — “the
skeptics” — thought that the benefits of having constant access to
information far outweighed any consequences.

While out in the wild, the scientists — skeptics included — noticed
something significant happening on the third day they couldn’t use their
hand-held devices, computers and mobile phones.

“You start to feel more relaxed. Maybe you sleep a little better. Maybe you
don’t reach for your phone pinging in your pocket,” Richtel says. “Maybe you
wait a little longer before answering a question. Maybe you don’t feel in a
rush to do anything — your sense of urgency fades.” Richtel terms it the
“three-day effect.”

Though the three-day effect didn’t surprise the neuroscientists on the trip,
they realized it presented a new research problem.

“They said, ‘Let us see if there’s anything in this three-day effect that
might be the basis for future study that might help us understand when we’re
overwhelmed with data and what happens to us when we get away from it,’ ”
explains Richtel, who accompanied the scientists on the trip. “To some
extent, the skeptics did see a bit of a change in their perspective. They
did say [things like] ‘I am not as engaged in my world when I’m constantly
using devices as I am when I am away from them.’ They also said that
revelation will inform [their] research going forward and may help us reach
broader conclusions. But they didn’t say, ‘I understand now what is
happening to the brain.’ They simply said, ‘There is something that merits
real study here.’ ”

Streaming Information And The Brain

Richtel says another question scientists are asking is how much is too much,
when it comes to processing technology.

“What is the line right now when we go from a kind of technology nourishment
to a kind of stepping backwards, to a kind of distraction — where instead
of informing us, [technology] distracts us and impedes our productivity?” he
asks. “There’s growing evidence that that line is closer than we’ve imagined
or acknowledged.”

He points to one study conducted at Stanford University, which showed that
heavy multimedia users have trouble filtering out irrelevant information —
and trouble focusing on tasks. Other research, he says, says that heavy
video game playing may release dopamine, which is thought to be involved
with addictive behaviors.

“When you check your information, when you get a buzz in your pocket, when
you get a ring — you get what they call a dopamine squirt. You get a little
rush of adrenaline,” he says. “Well, guess what happens in its absence? You
feel bored. You’re conditioned by a neurological response: ‘Check me check
me check me check me.’ ”

Richtel says that research is ongoing, particularly into how heavy
technology may fundamentally alter the frontal lobe during childhood, how
addictive behavior can lead to poor decision-making and how the brain is
rewired when it is constantly inundated with new information.

But it’s not all doom and gloom, he says. There are enormous benefits
associated with technology, too. Research from the University of Rochester
indicates that certain video gamers have more visual acuity than those who
don’t game. And there’s value in offloading thinking to a computer, he says
— by, for example, using Google Maps instead of calling for directions or
organizing information in Excel instead of keeping track of it in your head.

“There’s some stuff being done at UCSF where scientists are trying to figure
out if they can train older drivers to pick up more information in their
surroundings that would let them react more quickly,” he says. “Could they
effectively develop games that would have transferability outside the game
environment into the real-world environment? A key word in this discussion
is transfer. How do tasks we perform on the Internet transfer to real life?
That stuff is still very much in its embryonic stages.”

One way of looking at all of this research, he says, is to think of
technology the way we think about food.

“Just as food nourishes us and we need it for life, so too — in the 21st
century and the modern age — we need technology. You cannot survive without
the communication tools; the productivity tools are essential,” he says.
“And yet, food has pros and cons to it. We know that some food is Twinkies
and some food is Brussels sprouts. And we know that if we overeat, it causes
problems. Similarly, after 20 years of glorifying technology as if all
computers were good and all use of it was good, science is beginning to
embrace the idea that some technology is Twinkies and some technology is
Brussels sprouts.”

In addition to covering technology and telecommunications for The New York
Times, Matt Richtel also writes a syndicated comic strip, Rudy Park, and is
the author of Hooked, a thriller set in Silicon Valley. Richtel received the
Pulitzer Prize in 2010 for a series in The New York Times on driving while
multitasking.

…………

RELATED ARTICLES:

OUTDOORS AND OUT OF REACH, STUDYING THE BRAIN
By Matt Richtel
New York Times
August 16, 2010

THE RISKS OF PARENTING WHILE PLUGGED IN
By Julie Scelfo
New York Times
June 10, 2010

ATTACHED TO TECHNOLOGY AND PAYING A PRICE
By Matt Richtel
New York Times
June 7, 2010

AN UGLY TOLL OF TECHNOLOGY: IMPATIENCE AND FORGETFULNESS
By Tara Parker-Pope
New York Times
June 7, 2010

MORE AMERICANS SENSE A DOWNSIDE TO AN ALWAYS PLUGGED-IN EXISTENCE
By Marjorie Connelly
New York Times
June 7, 2010

MULTITASKING BRAIN DIVIDES AND CONQUERS, TO A POINT
NPR
April 15, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126018694

TIME MANAGEMENT IS KEY TO GETTING WORK DONE
NPR
February 15, 2010
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123732999

MULTITASKING TEENS MAY BE MUDDLING THEIR BRAINS
NPR
October 9, 2008
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95524385