Handheld devices changing the way human brains work by Graham Neve
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he scrambled to unlock her screen as her phone buzzed and hummed in her hands. The new messages coming in calmed her because they reassured her that she had friends. In real life, she couldn’t seem to click with people, but on her phone it was different. Her phone was vital to her existence, her morale and even her GPA. This fictional narrative might seem far-fetched, but it closely resembles the lives of some West students, according to University of North Carolina at Asheville psychology professor Michael Neelon. Neelon believes the Internet and handheld devices are affecting the way people think and live — literally changing the way their brains work. “We dont know when we’re going to get a post. We don’t know when something’s been updated,” Neelon said, “so because of that randomness we have to check all of the time. If we go too long without it, we find ourselves wanting to look at our phones because there could have been a post. We have to check to find out. It’s just like slot machines. They work the same way. You pull the lever, and you don’t know if you are going to win. The way to win is to keep pulling the lever.” Cell phones and other handheld devices were intended to keep people connected, but Neelon believes they are doing much more than that. “So you hear your phone go off, and you go, ‘Oh, that could be good, or it could be something bad, but whatever it is, it’s something interesting,’” Neelon said. “So in your brain, what I suspect is happening, is that dopamine is being released when you hear those cues that signal a potential reward — a message from a friend or an inter-
esting post or something like that.” This closely relates to an experiment done by Wolfram Schultz, a professor at the University of Cambridge. Monkeys were given fruit juice following a flash of light. Electrodes were hooked up to their brains to analyze the activity. “One thing that our brains have learned to do, and most mammals are like this, that we associate the events around the presentation of that reward,” Neelon said. “So the events (cues) now trigger neurotransmitters Michael Neelon to be released UNC-A psychology professor to make us pursue the reward.” The monkeys correlated the light with the fruit juice pretty quickly. They started to take the sugary-juice for
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It’s just like slot
machines.
They work the same way. You pull the lever, and you don’t know if you are going to win. The way to win is to keep pulling the lever.
“
granted because they knew the juice would come subsequently to the light. “So over time, in the reward center, the dopamine would start to be released when the light went on — not when the juice would come,” Neelon said. “In fact, it would stop when the juice came. There wasn’t really a noticeable spike in brain activity. So the dopamine system isn’t really about pleasure; it’s about anticipating the reward so that you are motivated to pursue it. Now translate that into your ringtone.” Neelon explained that human beings get pleasure from a phone or text conversation,but they get more pleasure from the alert. Computers and tech devices have also changed how human beings think and learn. According to school psychologist Jeff Kilpatrick, Google has almost made research too easy. “When I was a kid, we had to look things up in encyclopedias or go to the library with the index card system or card catalog,” Kilpatrick said. “It was really an intense process. Now you can look up articles and so much electronically, or if you do go to a physical library, you can pull everything up on their computer system and I think that it makes research easier now.” The quality of what Google is providing may not be what students really need, but the ease of use causes them to stop searching. “There’s so much information out there. If you’re looking up something more complex, like major social or political issues, there are so many viewpoints and opinions. There’s false information out there, so it’s hard for people using technology to know what’s good and what’s bad. There can be an overwhelming amount of stuff in that, too,” Kilpatrick said.
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