Good News, Everyone! Study Finds The Internet Makes You Smarter
Good News, Everyone! Study Finds The Internet Makes You Smarter
Posted 06/12/2009 at 2:32pm
| by Andy Salisbury
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According to a recent study, surfing the net makes us much smarter, rather than rotting our brains. For folks like us, this just happens to be some great news.
The study, which was conducted by Gary Small of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California at Los Angeles, took a poll of 24 participants. Half of the participants used the Internet on a daily basis while the other half had little to no experience. Using an MRI, Small compared brain activity as they read a book off of a computer screen, and both groups produced similar results. But, when he looked at the groups as they searched for clues about the benefits of eating chocolate and the best way to visit the Galápagos, the group that surfed the internet regularly registered twice as much activity in the frontal, temporal and cingulated areas of the brain – all of which supply aid to complex reasoning skills.
“The simple headline here is that Google is making us smarter,” stated Small. And for this revelation, we thank you. Perhaps surfing Facebook and I Can Has Cheezeburger all day long won’t seem so silly now!
Image Credit: Kevin Hand
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cicicicico1
June 13, 2009 at 11:51pm
I think they posted it here as a joke people calm down!
Hence the picture and the title.
alanmc76
June 15, 2009 at 4:48pm
I agree with you. I think all of the posters here realize that this is a joke, or at least it was reported that way. I would just like to add a few comments.
What irritates me is it's exacly these types of headlines that stir gullable people into a frenzy. OMG, violent video games are BAD!!! so, let's ban them all. Cell phones cause CANCER!!! so, let's ban them too. Baby seals are dying!!! so, let's go save them.
Get the point?
Sensational journalism is the product of alarmists looking to cause chaos. Don't get caught in the hype and hysteria.
-- "What am I, MacGyver? Fix it with what?"--
fullur
June 13, 2009 at 11:23pm
As several others have said, this study proves nothing. It is funny because I think the results are likely indicative of the truth, but skewed. Greater brain activity does not prove people are any smarter, it proves they are more engaged in the activity. Further, the study was not scientific in that it did not include the minimum sample size to be admissible into a discussion about the topic.
ratknight
June 13, 2009 at 7:11am
According to my college statistics clas, you need a random sample of at least 300 people to make any kind of claim to anything conclusively... not nearly enough here, and I would be it is not a simple random sample.
scholarwarrior
June 13, 2009 at 7:03pm
It must be almost difficult to find a fair number of people who almost never use the internet these days. It is likely that there are a lot more differences between these two groups than internet usage. Therefore, this study tells us little to nothing. Its embarrasing that a neuroscience institute would suggest so...
ghot
June 12, 2009 at 9:31pm
...a study composed of 24 people is hardly conclusive. I'm surprised to even see it printed here. It prove absolutely nothing and has about as much merit as marijuana studies done a a small group of uneducated Cuban farmers. Obviously internet users will register more brain activity when using the ......internet. A carpenter would use more more brain activity using a hammer compared to a person who never did.
This is just about the most shoddy example of crass sensationalism as I have seen since my last glance at National Enquirer.....please don't stoop to such journalism ever again.
Take an OS, and edit out all the efficiency, and what you have left is a post-XP Microsoft operating system :)
Gilbert_pwns
June 13, 2009 at 12:21am
The thing is it does make sense as long as your not someone who goes on freearcade all day long playing hoops. Reading an article off the web shouldn't be any different then reading articles on paper. The difference is its much faster and inexpensive to pull an topics out of the web and read them then to try and go out and get a printed copy. Most people do not want to exert the effort to drive to their local library and read all day. With more and more people having access to the web at home, any information is in minutes reach. Just the simple act of learning how to use a computer/web/os/hardware ETC gives you more knowledge and uses your brain. So while the study is quite shady it would not surprise me if it is more correct than not.
I Jedi
June 12, 2009 at 6:41pm
Thank god, because I thought that I was getting dumber spending eight or more hours a day on the net.
Yusonice
June 12, 2009 at 4:38pm
The results are not surprising. If you read something you have interest in, it is easier for the info to go in the brain. Also i think it depends on what you surf on the internet. I guess reading wikipedia or maximumpc helps but not when reading facebook profiles
couger
June 12, 2009 at 4:09pm
LoL mabe smarter peeps just surf a lot more, and we all know the smartest of the lot read MAXIMUM PC !!!
nekollx
June 12, 2009 at 2:49pm
I am so smrt! I am so Smrt!
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