What is the effect of the recent information deluge on our Essay

What is the effect of the recent information deluge on our intellectual capabilities - Essay Example hich they had read and that which they had not read since moving between links disrupts memory and the transfer of information from working memory to the long-term memory. As a result, the conclusion was that hypertexts in documents did for learning and in any case, it lowered the ability to retrieve information from documents by affecting retention (Carr, 2010). People’s general misconceptions were that use of the internet actually made people smarter as there were more stimuli and there was increased brain activity as people go through then web. The rerouting of brain neurons allows people to be better at problem solving, which is apparently not since increased brain activity does not translate in improving brain activity or cognitive skills (Armstrong, 2011). Instead, it only serves to reroute people’s neural pathways for information. It is also a misconception that the web is making us smarter as; in fact, it only strengthens brain functions in relation to solving fast-paced problems. The reason behind web surfing and multitasking is the need to absorb information rapidly and within the shortest time possible in bits and pieces (Carr, 2010). This is meant to identify information quickly in order for one to choose whether he or she will read further for more information. This is such that web surfing is meant to allow one to be in communication with the rest of the world while at the same time obtaining information from the internet. Multitasking, on the other hand is a form of distraction from one task to the next or another task and it is done to the presence of multiple stimuli and search for relevance in everything people do in the web and beyond. Cognitive overload and switch cost has significant effects on our brains in that it corrupts our power to retain the knowledge that we acquire and the ability to relate between memories by creating connections between them. This way, cognitive overload affects the brain in that it influences our ability to