How the Internet, Smartphones Affect Memory

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How the Internet, Smartphones Affect Memory
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THESIS: With scientists increasingly getting concerned whether people are likely to remember information accessed using Internet-enabled devices such as smartphones, just as students are more likely to recall ideas and facts they believe will be on an examination, evidence collected from different research studies indicate that the Internet; improves human intelligence, encourages multitasking, and shortens attention span.
* Instead of altering the brain functions, research shows that the Internet improves human intelligence and makes them smarter.
* A study by Pew Research Centre in2010, 75% of technology experts agreed that the Internet enhances human intelligence, allows people unprecedented access to information thus becoming smarter, and have the ability to make better choices (Anderson np).
* An opinion piece by psychologists Daniel J. Simons of the University of Illinois and Christopher Chabris of Union College appearing in the Los Angeles Times indicates that there is no experimental evidence to show that technology does not reorganize the brain nor affect one’s ability to focus (Pasquinelli np).
* Research indicates that use of Internet and allied technology devices such as smart phones encourages multitasking
* While increased presence of hypertext content over the Internet leads to multitasking and reduces cognitive ability for deep processing, shallow learning and using the Internet as an external source of memory frees up the cognitive resources for use in...