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Effects of Digital Immersion

O’Shea is a shining example of a generation that thinks and learns differently from its forebears. The differences stem from their immersion in digital technology. By the time they’re in their 20s, the Net Generation, as I call them, will have spent more than 30,000 hours on the Internet and playing video games. This is happening at a time when their brains are particularly sensitive to outside influences, and it has changed their mental reflexes and habits, the way they learn and absorb information.

Many critics think all this exposure makes young people dumb. One criticism, for instance, is that young people are reading far fewer books of literature than they once did. I think the decline in reading novels is a shame, but it does not make them stupid. As O’Shea’s example shows, the digital world provides new ways to learn that can potentially make this Net Generation the smartest ever.

Scientists are beginning to document the traces that the Internet leaves on sensitive young brains. People who play a lot of action video games, for instance, process visual information more quickly than people who don’t, according to a seminal 2003 article in Nature. (The study was initiated by a pre-med student who stayed up all night playing Counter-Strike.)

Digital immersion affects the Net Generation in other ways, too. They don’t necessarily read from left to right, or from beginning to end. They’re more sensitive to visual icons than older people are, and they absorb more information when it’s presented with visual images than when it’s offered in straight text. This may help them be better scanners, a useful skill when you’re confronted with masses of online information.