How Does The Internet Affect Our Brain?

There are new concerns that the modern world has brought into our lives. It is no longer enough to just think about our mental health or our weight; we also need to think about our brain health. At least that's what the newspaper headlines say. Does texting wear out the attention centers in our brain? Are Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools distracting us from normal human relationships? Is it true that email use provides addictive chemicals like cocaine?

There are also some people who benefit from the increase in such concerns. Bookstore shelves are now full of brain training books and games. All of these promise you that the brain's perception power can be trained like a muscle. So are these claims true? Are Sudoku puzzles the only thing that will prevent the human species from turning into an attention-deficit, socially dysfunctional, email-addicted half-human, half-smartphone? It would be best to start with the bad news before giving the good news on this subject.


The truth is that everything we do causes changes in our brains. Everything, from the smallest thought to the biggest experience, causes new connections and disconnections in our neural networks. This includes the internet. But watching TV, drinking tea, thinking about cleaning, etc. also. Our brain is full of traces of how we lived.

Looking at the new with suspicion

Concerns about the internet are part of the emerging backlash in societies against new technology. Similar concerns were expressed when the books became widespread. In ancient Greece, Socrates expressed his concerns about writing on the grounds that it would harm young people's ability to remember. Similar concerns were listed when television and telephones first appeared. These new technologies have indeed changed us and our lives, but not in the way the doomsayers predicted.
So, is the internet changing our brains in more extraordinary ways? There is no solid data pointing to the harms of the internet. Some of them point out that there may be negativities that we are not yet aware of. But I'm not worried about that. You ask why?
In our daily lives, we engage in activities that have profound effects on our brain: such as reading or sports competitions. While doing these, we do not think about the health of our brain. When scientists examine the brains of people who engage in the same activity for hours, they see changes.
For example, the hippocampus region in taxi drivers' brains, which is useful in finding direction, is much larger. The part of musicians' brains required to play instruments has grown. In fact, this is a growth that will create a bulge on one side of the motor cortex in violin players, since fine motor skills are required for one hand, and on both sides, in piano players, since both hands are used actively.
So, practicing definitely causes changes in the structure of the brain. So, what are we practicing when using the internet and how can this change the brain?

Live your life

Without definitive data available, we estimate that most internet use is for information seeking or communication purposes. The effect of this on the brain may be to become better at evaluating abstract information.
Internet use should only cause concern if it prevents us from using another important skill in our lives. For example, if Facebook puts an end to our ability to meet our friends face to face, it will have detrimental effects. But the data shows that this is not the case. Most of us use the Internet as an additional tool for communication, not as a substitute for other things.
So we cannot talk about an extra risk created by the internet. Like television and books, which entered our lives before the internet, it provides a way to implement some things. These kinds of practices will change our brain like other habits. We are also a part of this process; In other words, we can make voluntary decisions about what to do and how much to do. All of these will not cause immediate damage to our brain; But it would be foolish to think that these will replace the exercise our brain needs. Not taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the internet.