Essay Sample on How Digital Media is Influencing Brain Maturation & Social Interaction

Introduction

Digital media has transformed the way people live, work as well as communicate with others. The current generation has jumped into the technological advances, which has changed the way people perceive the world as well as the way brain receive and process information. Although the current generation has been brought up in a world saturated with media, it is unclear how media has influenced the maturation of the brain in social interactions and general functioning. As a result, there is need to evaluate the neural development of the brain among the frequent users of media while providing an understanding on the development of the brain based on the effects of social media as well as emotional sensitivity and the reflexive development process and the cognitive control (Twenge et al., 2018). The review will help in understanding the mutual influence of media on the brain. Living in the digital age has led to over-reliance on devices in one way or another thus technology affects the behaviors and relationships of individuals hence the need to be mindful of how to use technology so as not to later individuals' brains.

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Digital Media's Effects on the Brain

Digital media has led to shorter attention spans as well as distortion. An average span of an individual before the deluge of the social media was about 12 seconds. Currently, it has been found that individuals can only concentrate for about 8 seconds on average. Digital media has led to the distraction of the brain, changing the trends of how people think. The technological disturbance of the mind affects individuals' relationships, productivity, as well as the ability to learn, all of which requires maximum concentration. Therefore, digital media impacts creativity and the ability to be contemplative. However, digital media has improved individuals' ability to multitask. Digital technology is impressive as it helps an individual perform different activities while relying on the same type of brain processing, thus improved brain efficiency.

According to Falk and Bassett (2017), digital media has contributed to the current generation being more forgetful. Remembering entails allowing the brain to move information from the working memory to the long term memory. However, technology has led to the constant taking in of new information. As a result, it does not give the brain the ability to think and commits it to memory before further information grabs the attention of individuals. Although technology has several benefits, it has several drawbacks, including being more forgetful which have to be addressed by having a balanced life.

The high level of internet use impacts brain functioning. The continuous stream of prompts and notifications on the Internet leads to divided attention which decreases the capacity of the individuals to maintain concentration on a single task. Besides, the online world has presented individuals with unique and constant accessible resources for facts and information. With the world having various factual information, technology has the potential of changing the way the brain store and value these facts. The online technologies adoption with social media has raised a concern based on its impact on the school children and adolescents. Although more research is required, addressing the potential adverse effects of digital media on the brain is essential for developmental activities, including social interaction and exercise. The various software programs, as well as apps, are necessary for restricting internet usage and access to smartphones by the children.

Interaction in the current generation has changed with technology affecting the way individuals think and live. As a result of the increase in technology, many adolescents are exposed to risks of cyberbullying and addictive behaviors and exploitation. The uncertainties have raised concerns over the various effects on the increasing internet use on the brain with the Internet resulting in divided attention. The growing technology with various social media and internet application have the ability to impact the structure and functioning of the brain negatively. The Internet has negatively altered the opportunity for interacting socially with the change in the context within which social relationships take place. As a result, there is a need to understand the potential impact of the digital world on brain functioning while determining the various aspects of social behavior change. Minimizing the possible adverse effects entails reducing the high-intensity multitasking with the focus on mindfulness as well as the practice of internet hygiene techniques. It also requires intervention with active educational awareness on the impacts of how the digital world affects the mental and brain health while highlighting the potential benefits for some aspects of health.

The various aspects of lifestyle such as physical activity, diet as well as sleep influences brain functioning and mental health. The increased internet use, as well as time online, affects the way individuals' minds work and alters the trajectory development among adolescents. Evidence from psychological and psychiatric research has revealed how the Internet changes the cognitive aspect of the brain imaging form concentration to social cognition. The stream of online information has led to increased attention across various sources of media. The digital media, with its vast amount of information, affects memory by shifting the way individuals remember things.

The Internet can capture and hold the attention of an individual through the various media content available. It has been found that harmful internet effects on children's care. The Internet affects attentional capacities with the various digital media forms encouraging people to interact with multiple inputs, thus decreasing the multitasking performance. The Internet also affects the memory system of the brain with the individuals not able to retain unique information. The Internet has become a supernormal stimulus for the transitive memory with the Internet providing the options for cognitive offloading. The digital media has changed the way individuals store, retrieve and value knowledge. With the brain affected, individuals are affected by social connections; thus, the world is taking a different direction. The social media contributes to bending social rules.

The Internet has a different effect on the brain, depending on the age of the user. In children, the continuous use of the Internet, as well as a high amount of screen time, reduces the cognitive development and functioning of the brain thus limiting individuals' opportunities for social activities. The adults are not an exception as they also experience memory decline as well as reduced physical functioning (Firth et al., 2019). However, technologies could be used as a cognitive aid for memory retrieval while facilitating social interactions.

From the psychiatric point of view, there is a need for policies to combat the potential adverse effects of the Internet-based on the amount of time spent online. It entails engaging in healthy activities, including exercise as well as social interaction. Also, there is a need to establish guidelines relating to the time spent online as well as online businesses that are harmful and helpful. Indeed, there are multiple potential pathways through which the Internet can influence brain functioning and mental health (Firth et al., 2019). As a result, there is a need to establish the overall effects of digital media on online lives and psychological well-being. Although the impact of internet use on cognitive functioning and mental health differs between individuals, there is a need to begin examining these effects to develop strategies for helping address the adverse internet use on psychological well-being.

Discussion

The digital media provides the opportunity to access more information. However, the human continued venturing into the numeric frontier limits their power to learn and solve complex problems due to the meaningful overload from technology. Improved technology has changed the way humans interact and is throughout to be a tool in language with digital information shaping human minds and society. The current generation has mobile technology everywhere which contributes to the tremendous benefits and risks. The new media emergence results in chronic multitasking affecting management of the individuals' memory. The fast-paced current generation working as well as learning environments encourages multitasking, thus decreasing productivity and hinders cognitive function.

Digital technology affects the individuals' behaviors with online communication negatively affecting the relationships among individuals. Although the Internet allows the connection of people from various backgrounds, there is diminished value as well as the quality of the relationship among individuals thus impairing the emotional and social development among the adolescents (Alvarez-Jimenez et al., 2015). The Internet affects strong human ties, which is characterized by damaged brain system. With people relying on digital support and emotional development, it affects their mental and physical well-being. As a result, people are unable to maintain social ties. It reduces the creation of content with people taking the information on the Internet without filtering.

Exploring the unique features of the digital media reveals its influence on the attentional capacities as well as the memory processes which is impacted by the online information that shifts the way of retrieving, storing and valuing knowledge. Digital media affects social cognition as well as the ability to evoke the real world, such as self-concepts and self-esteem. The Internet produces several alterations in various areas of the cognitive part of the brain. As a result, there is need for research to determine the multiple effects for the digital media usage as well as the cognitive development while examining how it differs from the cognitive development of the brain is affected by the internet use. As a result, internet research should be integrated into the new facet of society as well as its effect on cognition and brain development.

The widespread of Internet has contributed to the re-invention of how the information is sought. It has hampered the channels for communication, thus having an impact on individuals' brains and cognitive functioning. The frequent internet use has shown that the brain has become malleable to environmental demands, thus affecting the learning processes. The digital media scenarios have induced various long term changes in the neuronal sector of the human brain ranging from language acquisition to the learning motor skills. Besides, the Internet presents the continuous learning of new information which creates a complex process in mind. The neuroplasticity, as well as the biological factors, leads to the change in the structure of the brain as well as its functioning (Takeuchi et al., 2018). Adopting a less engaging lifestyle across a lifespan accelerates the loss of cognitive function, thus lowering the brain ability to withstand insult from age. Digital media leads to disengagement from media which induces the adverse neurocognitive changes. Despite the positive impacts of the Internet, it has potential drawbacks, especially the internet integration for the cognitive processes, which requires insight to minimize the detrimental effects of the internet influence on neurocognitive processes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the effects of digital media and technology is a mostly unexplored phenomenon; thus, the need to examine the impact of internet use on the brain. People attempt harnessing technology and the use of innovation of the benefi...