Steve West Isn't the Only Web Junkie

Scott Hardie | July 10, 2012
Newsweek has a great article this week about how the Internet is making us lose our minds. I don't know if I completely buy their argument, since it seems pulled together in bits and pieces from such a variety of sources (they seem to hope that quantity over quality makes a good case). But some parts are truly scary:

[Studies] link Internet addiction to "structural abnormalities in gray matter," namely shrinkage of 10 to 20 percent in the area of the brain responsible for processing of speech, memory, motor control, emotion, sensory, and other information. And worse, the shrinkage never stopped: the more time online, the more the brain showed signs of "atrophy."

I feel like I've gradually weakened in each of those areas throughout my adult life, which is the same timeframe that I've been a frequent user of the Internet. It could be due to age or any number of other factors, but boy does that give me pause.

Maybe it's a true sign of an addict that even though the Internet could be poisoning my mind, I can't imagine life without it. It's what I use to earn my paycheck. It's the basis for most of my hobbies. It's how I communicate with virtually everyone I know. It's how I look up any information that I need. I could see giving up the casual entertainment part (I don't watch videos or spend much time on Facebook anyway), but changing my life to live without the rest is just unfathomable.

Scott Hardie | August 7, 2012
Time just published a pretty thorough takedown of Newsweek's research, plenty interesting in its own right.

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