The first generation of people widely exposed to using computers and other forms of technology is approaching old age.
That prompted researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Baylor University to study a theory that overindulgence of technology weakens cognitive abilities over time.
They found just the opposite: The use of technology over time lowered the risk of cognitive decline by 42%.
Neurologist Dr. Donna Newsome with Texas Health Plano told KERA’s Sam Baker the results make sense.
Dr. Newsome: With TV, you know, you can be a couch potato. TV is technology, but being a couch potato’s not really going to help your brain develop.
Whereas technology in the digital world - the email, internet, computers, smartphones - you are actually using your brain to learn something new. If you think about it, every three to six months technology in these type of areas is always changing. So you have to learn or use your brain in different ways and remap things every single time you learn things, every time you use it, every three to six months, if you're keeping up with your smartphone and things of that nature.
That makes the brain work. It's exercising the brain, using those brain cells and those neurons to say, hey, let's do something new.
Baker: Well, I guess maybe it’s the same thing as physical exercise. If you stay engaged with technology, it keeps your brain active.
For a healthy brain, you have to exercise your body. You need to sleep well, at least seven to nine hours for adults, eat well. We know what we're supposed to eat, you know, fish and chicken, vegetables and fruits. We know what we are supposed to do.
The same thing with the brain. You have to keep the brain active. I talk to my family all the time, particularly my sister. We all think about retiring one day. Yes, retiring is great, but you don't want to stop. Retirement shouldn't mean I just sit back and do nothing for the next ten years after retirement.
You still need to engage - maybe something different - to keep that brain active. Otherwise, you can increase your risk of developing cognitive impairment.
And yet, so many people out there believe we spend too much time on or with technology and that that's not good.
Well, there's good technology and what I would call not-as-useful technology. Social media is good for the brain in a sense it helps you with social contact, which decreases your risk of developing dementia. Because people who do not have as much social contact actually increase the risk of having dementia.
Isolation is a bad thing.
Isolation is a bad thing. So, social media is technology. This ought to be bad for you if you have too much of one type of activity. They don't know how much technology is considered really bad, but if you're on social media all day long, and you're just looking at the same type of YouTube video or tick-tock video or someone's post all the time, that's not going to stimulate your brain as if you're interacting with different types of things of technology.
How I interpret it is the technology that helps the brain is technologies from different aspects, not just one thing. You've got to diversify basically what you're doing out there with technology.
Is there such a thing as too much technology use, considering it's hard to work anywhere without having to engage with technology? It's in everything you do, and not to mention, as anybody can probably see, how many people are engaged on those cell phones all day, every day, every chance they get.
I would think there is such a thing as too much in the sense that it takes you away from interacting with actual other human beings.
And I know there are many people who actually are in a work environment that they are on their computer literally all day long, looking at a computer screen, sitting down all day long and never really communicating with a human being. That to me would be too much technology. You need to actually interact with face-to-face people as well.
Technology is great, particularly when it works well for you and it helps you in in your life and your lifestyle and promotes the things that makes life better for you. But you don't want to take away life itself because that still is the best thing to help your brain when it comes to developing dementia. You still need to interact with other people.
RESOURCES:
Technology use may be associated with a lower risk for dementia, study finds
