New Media Creating New Brains?

According to an article in Time magazine that cites recent research at Stanford, McGill, and USC, people who use their smart phones, tablets, and other devices to constantly surf the ‘net and engage in social media may be re-making their brain’s hard wiring…and not in a good way.

See http://time.com/4663458/smartphone-brain-dumb/?xid=newsletter-brief

According to article author Markham Heid, one’s anterior cingulate cortex, where reflective thought takes place, becomes atrophied and loses functionality. The brain becomes overloaded with constant over-stimulation of “always on” connectedness and starts losing the ability to take a break and let “aha!” moments rise through the soup of data and impressions absorbed both consciously and unconsciously.

Earlier research about the harmful effects of multi-tasking is reinforced by this newer work.