Degradation of the brain

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Every day more and more people complain of problems with brain activity - the ever-increasing absent-mindedness (that is, the inability to concentrate their attention, collect their thoughts to solve some problems), the difficulty in memorizing information, the physical inability to read large texts, not to mention books.

And they are asked to give them something to improve brain activity in general and memory in particular. And, paradoxically, this problem is typical not only and not so much for the elderly, whose brains seem to be weakened by age, but for people of middle and younger age. At the same time, many are not even interested in why this is happening - they automatically write it off as stress, fatigue, an unhealthy environment, at the same age, etc., although all this is not even close to being the reason. Among my patients there are those who are far away from 70, but who have no problems at all, either with memory or with brain activity. So what's the reason?

And the reason is that, in spite of any arguments, no one categorically wants to give up the so-called constant, round-the-clock "connection to information." In other words, the accelerated loss of your brain functions began on the very momentous day when you decided to be constantly “in touch”. And it makes no difference whether you were forced to do this by a service necessity, exhaustion from idleness, or an elementary fear of being “not on a level”, i.e. fear of being reputed to be a black sheep, an eccentric among their own kind.

Back in 2008, it was known that the average Internet user reads no more than 20% of the text placed on a page, and in every possible way avoids large paragraphs! Moreover, special studies have shown that a person who is constantly connected to the network does not read the text, but scans like a robot - grabs scattered pieces of data from everywhere, constantly jumps from one place to another, and evaluates information exclusively from the position of “share”, i.e. e. "Is it possible to send this" revelation "to someone?" But not with the aim of discussing, but mainly with the aim of evoking emotions in the form of an animated "burp", accompanied by short remarks and exclamations in SMS format.

In the course of research, it turned out that pages on the Internet, as already mentioned, are not readable, but are skimmed according to a pattern resembling the Latin letter F. The user first reads the first few lines of the text content of the page (sometimes even completely, from beginning to end), then jumps to the middle of the page, where he reads out a few more lines (as a rule, already only partially, without reading the lines to the end), and then quickly goes down to the very bottom of the page - to see "how it ended."

Therefore, the most effective way of presenting information to an ordinary Internet user is to display information in the form of an inverted pyramid (that is, according to the principle “the lower, the less”) with the mandatory highlighting of keywords (so that information consumers understand what is important and what is not very) and disclosing no more than one thought per paragraph. This is the only way to keep attention on the page for as long as possible. If, as you go down the page, the density of information does not decrease or, even worse, increases (as, for example, in this article), then only a few linger on such pages.

My personal opinion is:

The Internet is a real drug. What is a drug? This is a completely useless thing, without which anyone can live perfectly until they try. And when he tries, the addiction arises for life - drug addiction is not cured

People of all ranks and specialties complain about problems with the perception of information - from highly qualified university professors to service workers for servicing washing machines. Such complaints can be heard especially often in the academic environment, i.e. from those who, by the nature of their work, are forced to closely and daily communicate with people (teach, give lectures, take exams, etc.) - they report that the already low level of reading and information perception skills of those with whom they have to work, from year to year falls lower and lower.

Most people have tremendous difficulty reading large texts, let alone books. Even blog posts that are more than three or four paragraphs in size already seem to most people too difficult and tedious to understand, and therefore boring and not deserving even an elementary understanding. There is hardly a person who would not have heard the popular network saying "too many letters - not mastered", which is usually written in response to an offer to read something longer than a couple of dozen lines. It turns out a vicious circle - it makes no sense to write a lot, since almost no one will read it, and the reduction in the volume of transmitted thought leads to even greater meagerness of not only readers, but also writers. As a result, we have what we have - a massive stupidity.

Reading simply "does not go", primarily because:

a) I can't force myself to stop scanning the text, looking for keywords in it, and

b) the complex syntax inherent in the majority of classical, high-content or science-intensive works, which is completely absent in the exchange of the telegraphic "SMS-belch", is completely not assimilated.

As a result, one sentence has to be re-read several times! The most outspoken people say so bluntly: I am disgusting / disgusting to myself.

But that's not all. Due to the constant connection to the Internet, such human skills as the ability to return to once-meaningful information, analyze what has been read and connect the imagination are sharply deteriorating. Even worse, in 80% of cases, people go to the Internet for dubious entertainment, or get information from there that has not only zero, but negative cultural value.

There is an opinion, which I fully share, that the ability to effectively perceive complex texts, read complex literature will soon become an elite privilege, available only to a special caste of people. This idea is not new, since even Umberto Ekov, in his novel The Name of the Rose, suggested that only those who are able and ready to perceive complex knowledge should be allowed into the library. And everyone else will be able to read only signs and the Internet.

In short, no pills, no nutritional supplements, no diets, no shrinks, and the like. unable to stop brain degradation. It can only be stopped by one thing - stopping the flow of all kinds of information waste into the processing system and daily loading of the brain with so-called "useful information". This process is extremely difficult, and for many people it is completely impracticable. For many, the train, as they say, has already left.

Once again, in short:

1. Gadgets that ensure your constant connection to information / the Internet - smartphones, iPads, etc., without which you cannot even go to the toilet now - make you practically a moron with a sluggish, apathetic, barely thinking brain that is not able to think and analyze … But, like any drug addict, you, of course, are convinced of the opposite - that these soap dishes make your life unrealistically bright, rich, convenient, etc., and you personally - a "highly advanced person" who is always course of everything.
2. Thanks to these devices, all sorts of garbage, which contaminates your "on-board computer" so much that you are only suitable for performing the most primitive, low-skilled work, is continuously flowing into your brain around the clock. You are not able to speak coherently, or write, or read - your speech is tongue-tied and flooded with parasitic words. Telling someone about something, you find it difficult to find the right words, and listening to someone - you quickly lose the thread of the conversation and start to get bored and yawn. You cannot write, because you start to make mistakes in almost every word, and you don’t even know approximately how to use punctuation marks. But you cool selfies (and other garbage photos) and knock on someone on Viber or WhatsApp.
3. In short, listen to the bad news: mobile communications should be used only and exclusively in EMERGENCIES. For example, you have arrived in an unfamiliar city and cannot find a greeter - you really need to call. Or you are late for an important meeting - you really need to call, i.e. you need to configure your gadget only to receive or transmit the professional and business information you need. The rest of the time, your gadget must be turned OFF. However, I can imagine how uncomfortable you are at the mere thought of this.
4. You need to be prepared for the fact that all your surroundings, to put it mildly, will not understand you - they will tell you that you are with greetings, quite a bit, that your roof has gone, etc. Spit and grind. Remember, you are the target of an information attack and you need to defend yourself. As CBS News President Richard Salant said, "Our job is to sell people not what they want, but what we need."
5. Finally, you need to re-learn to read books. Real paper books - do you understand? Do not look at your soap box with a screen for hours with blind eyes, but read books. It will be hard, but try it. You don't need to force yourself - on the first day read Ѕ pages, on the next - a whole page, on the third day - 1, 5 pages, etc. Keep in mind that the body will resist this in every possible way - it will feel sick, and break, and pull to do whatever, so long as the brain does not strain.

I do not wish you good luck, because you will not need it at all.