Homo Interneticus

Whilst I'm not sure that scientifically we are actually classed as a new species, it was interesting to see just how much of an affect the internet has had on our lives since its inception twenty years ago. I hadn't really given it much thought until I watched the final episode in the BBC's Virtual Revolution series this evening but when it is having an effect so great that it actually changes how our brains work then perhaps we are trending towards becoming a new species with a totally different brain layout to the old 'us'. The other scary thing is the time scale that this has all happened in. Whereas normally evolutionary changes and adaptations would take place over thousands and millions of years, we are talking about just two decades in which we are seeing noticeable changes to out physiology.

I managed to take the online web behaviour test to see what sort of internet animal I was and I am a leopard apparently. Fast moving, solitary and specialised. That means that I zip about from place to place - so true, can find information very quickly - again, I am pretty competent with a search engine. The solitary part concerned me slightly at first but this is calculated by the sources you use for information. I don't trust social networking sites as a good source of information. Why should I? If I want to know what pressure to put in my car tyres, do I trust Joe Bloggs on twitter or do I go to the manufacturers website - the second one, always and unquestionably. Perhaps that is my distrustful side showing, I am quite happy to accept information thrown at me through these sites - although I will probably question it and get some more information about it before I pass that information on - and if it seems implausible I will go looking for an official source to confirm before I accept it. I suspect the more technically minded web users are in the same boat because they know how easy it is for rumours to spread online. It would be interesting to see some statistics after the experiment has been running for a while - such as what is the most popular animal based on certain demographics, age gender location etc and whether it shows that you can quite accurately describe someone solely based on their animal.

If using the internet really is changing the way we think and behave then is it making us smarter or dumber? I suppose you could argue for both really; it all depends on how you define intelligence. No one has really managed to come close to a measure of intelligence, there has been the IQ test which is probably the most famous test but many scientists agree (as do I) that there are many types of intelligence and that they cannot be captured by an all encompassing number. If we are moving away from the old definition of 'clever' whereby you were considered to be so if you were well read, articulate and had good all round knowledge; are we now moving towards a definition of 'clever' where we do not need to remember as much information but simply possess the skill to find it quickly. The internet certainly seems to do just that because we are constantly consuming media, whether it be twenty-four hour rolling news, status updates or viral videos and blogs because we are accumulating all of this raw data in such a small time, no wonder we have no where to store it all. What we do need to know how to do however, is access it again when we need it.

I find myself struggling to remember the source of a lot of the information that I write about on this blog and end up trawling through my history to try and pinpoint the site that I initially got the information from. This can often be an arduous task, especially if the day has been slow and I have been frequenting many sites, without a rough idea of a time or a keyword, finding it can be a case of looking through each and every visited page. Perhaps they should introduce compulsory periods of 'off' time where we are banned from using any form of connected media (phones, TVs, computers etc) and have to spend the time consolidating all of the information we have accumulated throughout the period. It may seem slightly daunting but looking at Victoria Coren's recent experience after being in 'The Bubble' it may be beneficial. (I remembered that link from this morning!)

I can't say I'll be trying this out any time soon - mainly because the internet is the only source of entertainment I have for the vast gaps between activities during the day. It might be slightly more doable if I am on holiday or in a remote area without a hard wired connection to the world wide web. Thinking about it... what happens if it isn't so bad after all? What if I actually start to enjoy the occasional day off from the internet? It doesn't bear thinking about really.