It’s an older piece by Chabris and Simons, 2 leading neurologists, from 2010, but surely still an important mustread in a year that saw Manfred Spitzer gaining popularity. So, Google is not making us stupid, PowerPoint is not destroying literature, and the Internet is not really changing our brains.

“The appeals to neural plasticity, backed by studies showing that traumatic injuries can reorganize the brain, are largely irrelevant. The basic plan of the brain’s “wiring” is determined by genetic programs and biochemical interactions that do most of their work long before a child discovers Facebook and Twitter. There is simply no experimental evidence to show that living with new technologies fundamentally changes brain organization in a way that affects one’s ability to focus. Of course, the brain changes any time we form a memory or learn a new skill, but new skills build on our existing capacities without fundamentally changing them. We will no more lose our ability to pay attention than we will lose our ability to listen, see or speak.”

Read the article here!