Researchers: Smartphone Use Changing Our Brain and Thumb Interaction 45
Rambo Tribble writes Researchers from the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and University of Fribourg have found evidence that smartphone use changes the way your brain interacts with your thumbs. Using electroencephalography to study brain activity in smartphone users vs. feature-phone users, they found apparently persistent, increased activity in areas of the brain associated with the thumbs. Of course, this may well be true of other repetitive activities, like keyboard use. Reuters provide a bit more approachable coverage.
Pthptpphtht!! (Score:5, Insightful)
I coulda told you that with my Atari 2600 joystick...
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I coulda told you that with my Atari 2600 joystick...
I coulda told you that with my abacus...
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I don't use my thumbs with my smartphone, you insensitive clods!
Hold in left hand, poke and stroke with right index finger. No, no, the smartphone, still talking about the smartphone.
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Re:Pthptpphtht!! (Score:4, Funny)
I'm left handed you insensitive clod!
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(Except when using the Atari 2600 joystick because... well you couldn't use it left handed... :) )
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I'm left handed you insensitive clod!
Then if you use your right hand it's like someone else is doing it for you. Apparently.
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It's not just the thumb; fingers too (Score:1)
"...we measured the cortical potentials in response to mechanical touch on the thumb, index, and middle fingertips of touchscreen phone users and nonusers (owning only old-technology mobile phones). Although the thumb interacted predominantly with the screen, the potentials associated with the three fingertips were enhanced in touchscreen users compared to nonusers"
I was wondering about this, since I tend to use my index finger as much or more than my thumb the way I hold my phone.
Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was learning to play piano I had a lot of difficulty training my fingers at first. I had to concentrate on what my fingers were doing but the more I practiced the more natural it became. Occasionally I would come across a part that had an unusual timing or chord change and I would have to practice it multiple times to get it down.
I imagine that doing any complex repetitive task would eventually change the way it looks on an EEG as the person becomes more practiced.
Re:It's not just the thumb; fingers too (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep... You're developing muscle memory.
In a similar vein, Nicholas Carr's "The Shallows -- What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains" discusses something very similar from the standpoint of our using the Internet. It affects how we absorb and retain information and the changes in the brain are measurable. Essentially, the brain rewires itself to adapt to the technology that we use. That one's brain/thumb wiring is strengthened from messaging on smartphones is not a big surprise.
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As long as that's all you're using it for!
index finger (Score:3)
I operate my phone with my index finger, you insensitive clod.
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I use the stylus like a little pen. But my handwriting is still awful.
Not just the thumb (Score:2)
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Cell phone use causes the brain to disconnect from the whole body. When you spend your whole day staring at that tiny screen ignoring everything around you many things go wrong.
Depends on the definition of "wrong".
I consider a group of people all ignoring each other at the end of a dinner because they're all too busy catching on their cell phones as "wrong", but society seems to welcome and accept this rude behavior.
To me, society has disconnected from society, and the products people embrace tell the story as to how much they like it that way. We're rather screwed as a species when it comes to natural communication because of this. Perhaps you'll notice it more when your future
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Awwww, is somebody jealous that nobody wants to communicate with him?
Re:Not just Thumbelina (Score:2)
Cell phone use causes the brain to disconnect from the whole body. When you spend your whole day staring at that tiny screen ignoring everything around you many things go wrong.
[Cue music] It would not have been possible otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Cell phones are that distraction -- and the Internet is the enabler -- an unspeakable scourge -- The Real Public Enemy Number One !
Its first effect is sudden violent, uncontrollable laughter, then come dangerous hallucinations -- space expands -- time slows down, almost stands still.... fixed ideas come next, conjurin
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Not in my brain... (Score:2)
I can't type worth a damn on a smartphone with my thumbs. Anything texts I tried creating using my thumbs would be autocorrected to the point where the recipients would think I was having a stroke.
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Why would it be a surprise
It's not a "goes against what you'd expect" surprise, but if you had never thought about it before, it could well be a mild surprise.
or a discovery to see
That's what a discovery is - to see something for the first time.
Just because this seems obvious in hindsight, that doesn't mean it's not interesting or useful that it has been shown scientifically to be true.
It's called muscle memory (Score:3)
News flash! (Score:2)
Reuters is singular (Score:2)
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]:
Reuters /rtrz/ is an international news agency
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A collective entity is sometimes treated like a plural in sentences, as explained in The Economist style guide [economist.com]. I agree that Reuters should be singular, for several reasons, but it's understandable that people sometimes overshoot with the pluralization.
I guess "Reuters" looks explicitly plural, but it was founded by a chap called Reuter, and once called Reuter's Telegram Company, so the current name is probably just a typographical contraction. IMHO, it's obvious that a business entity should be singular
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There is a downside (Score:2)
The downside is: having a thumb that is good for texting goes completely against the grain of what you want for the use of fine dexterity for other applications.
In most activities that require good dexterity, the thumb provides a steady rest, with only small but strong movements, using control.
Don't believe me?
Grab and apple and peel it.
Grab a pencil and write.
Hold a ratchet, a scalpel, a tweezers, scissors, a soldering iron....