When was the last time you took a vacation...from technology? With the Internet, smart phones, laptops and netbooks, and Wi-Fi in coffee shops, hotels, and in some city parks, we can stay "connected" 24 hours a day, but should we? A group of neuroscientists recently wondered how technology, particularly the breaks in attention brought on by interruptions from e-mail, text messaging, and surfing the Web, is affecting our cognitive processes. The group also wondered what a week of hiking and camping, with no cell-phone or Internet access, would do to their minds. Matt Richtel, in his article from the New York Times, described their experience:"Todd Braver emerges from a tent nestled against the canyon wall. He has a slight tan, except for a slim pale band around his wrist.
For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Mr. Braver is not wearing his watch. “I forgot,” he says.
It is a small thing, the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Mr. Braver and his companions, these moments lead to a question: What is happening to our brains?
Mr. Braver, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, was one of five neuroscientists on an unusual journey. They spent a week in late May in this remote area of southern Utah, rafting the San Juan River, camping on the soft banks and hiking the tributary canyons. It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects."
See Richtel's full article at NYTimes.com.
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