I recently read an article on Yahoo! News about how scientists believe our technology could be “rewiring our brains”.
Feel free to check it out here: Scientists ask: Is Technology Rewiring Our Brains?
The article was interesting, but fairly superficial – it did not get into specifics of how exactly they believe the brain is being rewired.
Now I am totally in the “digital native group”. I’ve been on computers all my life. I wrote my first program in BASIC when I was in first grade. I’ve been downloading MP3s since 1998. I played the original Warcraft before it had it’s own world.
And yeah, I do believe that technology is pulling away the younger generations (below 30 years old) from developing core social skills. It’s reasonable to think that if someone spends less time with people in social settings they’re going to have less social skills and less “street smarts” than someone who spends plenty of time in social situations. That’s a no-brainer.
On the other hand, I think that any “re-wiring” of our brains is a good thing. Humans and societies at large are continuing to evolve. Evolution means adaptation, and that means change! Change is good… but news has a tendency to cast any change in a “doomsday”-esque light.
They can argue that spending less time in social situations results in less social skills. However, I think it is a mistake to say that technology rewires our brains in a way that blocks social skills or hinders social skills. When they use phrases like “parents are worried, scientists are concerned”, it makes it sound like technology is harming us. It’s not – what’s “harming” us is NOT having a social life.
Technology is helping us – we have a wealth of information available to us thanks to our modern technology. There’s no reason a person can’t have a thriving social life AND use technology to the fullest. Hell, if we didn’t have today’s technology, this website would not exist!
At the heart of the matter, the message is that if you don’t spend time in social situations regularly, you will have sub-par social skills. But it’s nothing that can’t be repaired and improved dramatically, to the point where that same person can develop above average social skills with consistent focus and practice.
But it won’t happen through reading books about it and spending time online with the “seduction community”. Books and forums can help inspire - and that has a lot of value, but only IF you take that inspiration and go into social situations regularly and consistently with it.
Bottom line: My solution to improving skills with people is to spend plenty of time with people.
No related posts.