網絡已經深入我們的生活，我們經常會在網上搜索資料，跟遠方的朋友聯(lián)系，很多人覺得網絡早已改變了我們的生活，但是很多人卻說咱們的腦袋也被網絡影響了，會變成什么樣呢？
iPhones, Twitter, Youku, Blue Tooth.
Neurologist Gary Small says they may not change the brain's structure, but certainly its function.
"It's not surprising to me because our brains are very sensitive to stimuli, and if we keep stimulating the brain, it's going to change how it functions."
But he says that constant connectivity has its ups…and downs.
"It's almost like we're a colony of ants or bees that's constantly communicating. And we've become kind of one communal mind! And it's actually interfering with our ability to think outside the box and be creative."
Small is a neurologist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior.
He is the author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.
"When you have a new idea, you've got to explore it. You've got to think about it. If you tell your friend online or on a text message they're going to immediately vet it and say 'oh, that's a stupid idea', and you don't have a chance to develop it."
Small is not the only one fascinated by this phenomenon.
Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.
"The big danger with the internet is it puts all the emphasis on skimming and scanning and fast processing, and puts very little emphasis on contemplation and reflection and introspection."
Like Small, Carr argues that a certain kind of creativity is lost there.
"The type of creativity that allows us to think in new ways, original ways, that allows us to go against the grain of the common wisdom and what everybody else is saying, that does require a deep kind of personal attentiveness. And that's what the internet and other modern technologies seem to be stealing from us."
Old stick-in-the-mud thinking or legitimate concern?
Whatever the case, Carr and Smalls' ideas seem to have hit a nerve, so to speak.
The blogosphere has the full spectrum of opinions about the internet and creative thought.
But Gary Small says we don't need to throw out the baby with the bath water.
"It's not all good and it's not all bad. In fact, we could argue that the new technology allows us to be more creative, to collaborate with people who we wouldn't ordinarily collaborate with, and come up with new ideas, and use the technology to accelerate those new discoveries."
Small says the key is not to let your neurons get addicted to techno stimulation.
"You know, we need a balance, because we can get lost in all the information."
But Nicholas Carr has slightly more cautionary advice.
"If you as an individual person wish to maintain your full capabilities as a human being, you're going to need to rebel a little bit against the social expectation that you're always connected, always processing messages, and spend some more time with your own thoughts. Because if you don't, your skills in those areas are going to wither away."
If you feel your neurons are hooked on cyber stimulus…
If you feel you're losing your ability for quiet, creative thought…
Well, you can always look for help online.
There's a solution there for everything…isn't there?
For CRI, I'm Allie Johnson.
