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The Ecstasy of Tomorrow

Internet and Media is dangerous for teens today because it changes the way students think and weakens educational endurance. With the media ever present in our day-to-day lives, it is imperative to understand how it is affecting us. After all are we really to naive to say it doesn’t?

First, the Internet has the ability to rewire, reprogram, and redevelop the brain and even take on some qualities of the technologies’ that are changing the students. In a 2008 article entitled “Is Google Making us Stupid?”, it tells that the human brain is malleable and has the ability to reprogram its self. In that same article, James Olds, a professor at George Mason University, conducted a study and concluded, “ The adult mind is very plastic. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. The brain, according to Olds, has the ability to reprogram its self on the fly, altering the way it functions. (Carr 4)” By constantly flooding the brain with new ideas and information, as the media does, the brain without even knowing it, is changing the way it thinks. The Internet gives information in a split second. When students’ brains expect everything to be given to them instantaneously, the attention span shortens. From all of this, teachers no longer have the ability to teach them in a fashion that their brains will understand. Not everything in life is learned or accessed in a matter

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of seconds. Allowing the media to alter the brains of young individuals is ultimately detrimental to development.

Consequently, constant media stimulation dose not allow the brain much needed down time in order to connect ideas and set priorities. Scientist at the University of California, San Francisco have found, “ That when rats have a new experience, like exploring an unfamiliar area, their brains show new patterns of activity. But only when the rates take a break from their exploration do they process those patterns in a way that seems to create a persistent memory….These brain studies suggest to researchers that periods of rest are critical in allowing the Brian to synthesize information, make connections between ideas and even develop the sense of self. (Ritchtel 6)” It is even more critical for young people whose brains have not fully developed and can not make decisions. This transfers directly into school. The Educational endurance is lowered because students are constantly being stimulated with media. Teenaged students in today’s society have media surrounding them twenty-four seven. Just a cell phone alone can keep a student occupied for the duration of the day. Crucial down time the brain needs to make those connections is not present in the everyday lives of teenaged students. As a result, the students are not grasping the information, as they should.

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Some may say that media gives young students an opportunity to socialize and build social skills,