July 10, 2012

Internet Use, Remaking Brain Patterns

[From article]
Peter Whybrow, the director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, argues that “the computer is like electronic cocaine,” fueling cycles of mania followed by depressive stretches. The Internet “leads to behavior that people are conscious is not in their best interest and does leave them anxious and does make them act compulsively,” says Nicholas Carr, whose book The Shallows, about the Web’s effect on cognition, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. It “fosters our obsessions, dependence, and stress reactions,” adds Larry Rosen, a California psychologist who has researched the Net’s effect for decades. It “encourages—and even promotes—insanity.”
[. . .]
The brains of Internet addicts, it turns out, look like the brains of drug and alcohol addicts.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/07/08/is-the-internet-making-us-crazy-what-the-new-research-says.html

Is the Web Driving Us Mad?
Jul 9, 2012 1:00 AM EDT
Tony Dokoupil
Newsweek
Daily Beast

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