Thursday Review—PART II: Technology and the Brains of Digital Natives

a guest post by Jackie E. Perry

If you read last Thursday’s blog about Digital Immigrants, you learned a bit about the challenges Digital Immigrants face as their brain attempts to navigate today’s rapidly changing world of technology. Neuroscience research reveals that the hardwired brain of Immigrants may at first resist life in a digital world but because of the malleability of the brain, it can slowly and surely adapt to new technology.   

This week we will discuss technology’s impact on the brains of Digital Natives.  To help you assess whether you are a Native, I have made a checklist a la Jeff Foxworthy.

“You might be a Digital Native if

… as a small child your parents often entertained you with their cellphone or laptop instead of a rattle and some blocks.”

…you have to ask someone what the letters VCR stand for.” 

…your first words were ‘Google’ instead of ‘gaga’!”        

If technology was your primary way to communicate with, record, educate, and understand society as you grew up, you are most certainly a Digital Native. 

Can You Pat your Head and Rub your Belly at the Same Time?

Remember that challenge from grade school? Since many forms of digital technology are typically being utilized at the same time, multitasking for Digital Natives has become a way of life. In his book iBrain, Gary Small reveals that exposure to multiple devices at once, particularly during formative years, affects the neural networking process in the brain. These synaptic connections become hardwired to expect and even desire more than one stimulus at a time.

My teenage daughter, like many Digital Natives, prefers to do her homework with headphones on while toggling between Google, Facebook, Twitter and the inbox on her cellphone. In fact many Natives do quite well balancing more than one thing at a time and often struggle with focus when forced to complete one task at a time! Small notes that some research attributes this shift to changes in cognitive capabilities and increased average IQ scores. Others point out that while there may be an increased breadth of knowledge, the changing brain may now be experiencing limitations in its ability to contemplate, think deeply or fully assimilate concepts or new ideas.  

Hundreds of Friends, Fewer Friendships

Some researchers believe this idea of breadth versus depth may also be impacting the quality of social relationships in this digital era? Many people these days have hundreds or even thousands of “friends” and “followers” online. But could the depth or quality of individual friendships be at risk when digital devices seem to dominate the way many people connect with one another? Since the brain learns and adapts through exposure, when conversational rhythms, intonations, empathic expressions, facial cues and nonverbal expressions are limited, the brain may not adequately develop neural connections that are critical for deep and intimate relationships.   

Tech-Free Brain Training

So while Digital Natives are at an advantage in their ability to scan and assimilate information at rapid rates, when it comes to deep friendships, the digital world cannot sufficiently provide the depth and breadth of social learning that occurs in vivo. In order to help Digital Natives and Immigrants with increased deficits in this area, Small devotes the latter half of his book exercises and tips that will enhance social skills by learning how to empathize, read, listen, focus, and genuinely engage with others for the sake of brain health and human happiness.

 ¹Marc Prensky, On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)       

Jackie E. Perry is a counselor, speaker and writer. She has spent the last two decades counseling teens and families. As a dynamic speaker and writer Jackie is passionate about encouraging and equipping parents and professionals to walk purposefully and lovingly alongside adolescents in their final trek toward adulthood. She's married to her best friend and together they are the parents of two teens and one tween.

You can connect with Jackie through her motivational blog, www.jackieperry.net, follow her on Twitter at @Jackieperry67, or you can contact her to speak at your church, organization, or professional group by sending an email to jackie@jackieperry.net.

Thursday Review—Digital Immigrant, or Those Who Remember Life BEFORE Digital Gadgets!

A guest post by Jackie Perry

Technology & the brains of digital immigrants

PART I: Technology and the Brains of Digital Immigrants

As the daughter of immigrants I grew up in a home where language and cultural norms were quite different than my neighborhood friends. I still remember the tension I felt in settings where I wasn’t quite sure how to interact with others. By slowly being immersed in American culture, however, I learned to watch, listen and mimic my friends—the cultural experts. Over time my social clumsiness faded and so did the accompanying stress. I soon found that I was reasonably proficient at relating to others in two totally different cultures as I practiced and incorporated new behaviors.

While social barriers like these may not be something you’ve had to face, perhaps you may be a cultural immigrant of another sort. These days if you were born before the age of digital technology, many would consider you a Digital Immigrant¹. Similar to cross cultural immigrants, overcoming stress and social awkwardness will happen as you learn the language, norms and social expectations of this new age and assimilate it into your lifestyle.

iBrain, Surviving the technological
alteration of the modern mind

In Gary Small’s book, iBrain, he reveals how neuroscience research now reveals that the brains of Digital Immigrants are wired differently than those of Digital Natives. These differences make it more difficult for immigrants to learn new ways of interacting and relating to the world through technology. He offers fascinating insights, helpful tips and wise counsel to immigrants navigating their way through a foreign land.

OLD DOGS CAN LEARN NEW TRICKS

Small states that “the typical Immigrant’s brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, by taking things step by step and addressing one task at a time.” (p.40) Thus learning new systems and socializing with others in today’s digital age goes against the neural circuitry that was laid down earlier in life.

The good news is that while the brain’s ability to adapt slows down significantly with age, the brain’s mature circuitry can be utilized to see the big picture by incorporating new learning into existing templates in the brain. Even as the brain ages it remains malleable or flexible and can be retrained throughout life, often by integrating regions of the brain. So if you’re an old dog like me, take heart! You really can learn new tricks especially by observing the behaviors of other immigrants (like Edie!) who have made sense out of a culture that wasn’t a part of our brain’s hard wiring early in life.

Our brains are social organs that atrophy when not
regularly exposed to human contact

DON’T FORGET YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE!

Be warned, however, even if your brain adapts well to socializing and learning in this digital era, don’t abandon old ways of relating to others. Studies repeatedly reveal that our brains are social organs that atrophy when not regularly exposed to human contact. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when we consider its Master designer. God created us for a relationships and calls us to love others well.  Loving others can certainly happen in front of a screen but it must also occur in front of a face. Your brain and theirs requires that of you.

¹Marc Prensky, On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)

NEXT WEEK-PART 2:  Technology and the Brains of Digital Natives (those of you who don’t recall a life without gadgets!) 

Jackie E. Perry

Jackie E. Perry is a counselor, speaker and writer. She has spent the last two decades counseling teens and families. As a dynamic speaker and writer Jackie is passionate about encouraging and equipping parents and professionals to walk purposefully and lovingly alongside adolescents in their final trek toward adulthood. She's married to her best friend and together they are the parents of two teens and one tween.

You can connect with Jackie through her motivational blog, www.jackieperry.net, follow her on Twitter at @Jackieperry67, or you can contact her to speak at your church, organization, or professional group by sending an email to jackie@jackieperry.net.