Your Brain on Computers

Since most of these new-fangled gadgets are wireless, just think how this is connected to EMF exposure and that it just might be implicated in the level of forgetfulness experienced.

Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price

An Ugly Toll of Technology: Impatience and Forgetfulness
Your Brain on Computers: More Americans Sense a Downside to an Always Plugged-In Existence (June 7, 2010)

By MATT RICHTEL

SAN FRANCISCO — When one of the most important e-mail messages of his life landed in his in-box a few years ago, Kord Campbell overlooked it.

Not just for a day or two, but 12 days. He finally saw it while sifting through old messages: a big company wanted to buy his Internet start-up.

“I stood up from my desk and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,’ ” Mr. Campbell said. “It’s kind of hard to miss an e-mail like that, but I did.”
The message had slipped by him amid an electronic flood: two computer screens alive with e-mail, instant messages, online chats, a Web browser and the computer code he was writing.

While he managed to salvage the $1.3 million deal after apologizing to his suitor, Mr. Campbell continues to struggle with the effects of the deluge of data. Even after he unplugs, he craves the stimulation he gets from his electronic gadgets. He forgets things like dinner plans, and he has trouble focusing on his family.
His wife, Brenda, complains, “It seems like he can no longer be fully in the moment.”
This is your brain on computers.

Biomechanics of information: Going more miles per gallon with your brain

ScienceDaily (2010-06-05) -- The hunting strategy of a slender fish from the Amazon is giving researchers more insight into how to balance the metabolic cost of information with the metabolic cost of moving around to get that information. ... > read full article