Vanessa Austin Locke on how the internet is changing our brains

I said a few weeks ago that I’d précis an article I’d written on how the internet is changing our brains and why I felt, after extensive ‘research’, that there was more to this online dating lark that meets the eye.

The article was called Mind Change, which is a term coined by Baroness Susan Greenfield of Bad Science infamy. She gets a tough time occasionally because she voices ideas and opinions she hasn’t yet proved. But to a writer and fantasist she’s fascinating because of that. I couldn’t prove that engaging in relationships which took place (at least in part) online had a negative impact on my life and happiness, but I didn’t need to because the bad taste left in my mouth informed my instinct that something wasn’t right.

What was wrong was the application of false empathy. We’re all used to inhabiting an online 2D metropolis, but what happens when we start co-habiting in 2D? Sociologist and psychologist Sherry Turkle is author of Alone Together and she believes we’re developing, “the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship.” She says” “Those little devices in our pockets are so psychologically powerful that they don’t only change what we do, they change who we are.”

Greenfield suggests we’re experiencing ‘cognitive overload’ and using her comparison to climate change explains how the plasticity of our brains makes them highly adaptable. A fascinating experiment, conducted by Alvaro Pascual-Leone, shows us that what the brain fantasises and what it actions have a remarkably similar impact on the pre-frontal cortex.

“Online we’re restricted to two senses: sound and vision”

In face-to-face communication words have 10 per cent impact, eye contact/body language have 55 per cent, voice (tone of) has 35 per cent, then smaller impulses like pheromones/physical contact make up the rest. Online we’re restricted to two senses: sound and vision. A survey of 14,000 students at the University of Michigan showed a 30 per cent drop in empathy over the past three decades, accelerated dramatically in the last decade.

Have you noticed any changes in your behaviour since the social media explosion? A bit ADD? Greenfield explained that the cycle of excitement, addiction and reward experienced in a high-speed 2D environment is causing high levels of dopamine (the addiction hormone) to be released. Could it be that our machines are training us to respond, like Pavlov’s dog?

Towards the end of the article I predicted a rise in fetishism and kink (that was before the kink craze circa Summer ’12). I ask if our over-exposure is leading to incrementally accumulated PTSD and detachment. Of course, we could just call it evolution. That’s just the way things are now, right? But I don’t like this revolving door, disposable relationship treadmill we all seem to be on. Turkle says: “Human relationships are rich and they’re messy and we clean them up with technology… Listen to each other, including the boring bits, because it’s when we hesitate, or stumble, or lose our words that we reveal ourselves to each other.”

You can read my full article, Mind Change, at vanessaaustinlocke.wordpress.com – Portfolio – Features – Mind Change.