Technology Natives, Industry Natives, Digital Natives, Ho Hum....

Caveat:  This post is being written for the sheer love of ranting.  I wanted to be a neuroscientist when I grew up, and love being able to sink my teeth into gray matter again.  Wait a minute... that didn't come out exactly how I meant it.  Regardless, there is a lot more to the digital native/digital immigrant discussion than I am writing about here.  I'm addressing a specific point.  The amazement that, OMG, brains have changed.

I don't at all doubt that the brains of "digital natives" differ from "boomer brains" and "silent generation" brains and the brains of a whole lot of other groups.  Homo sapiens brains, or something in the skull, took up a whole lot more space than what filled the skulls of Homo erectus.

Brains change when environments change. Sometimes with iffy results.

Damage to toddler brain caused by neglect and/or abuse

You are probably familiar with this famous scan of the brains of toddlers who were not neglected and abused compared to toddlers that were neglected, abused or both.  Or the research on Romanian children  who were brought up on war-ravaged orphanages.

Brains do change, and have been changing, I would wager, whenever there are seismic shifts in the landscape - the latest being the Dawn of the Digital, or whatever we want to call it.

The world underwent some shaking-up at the time of the Industrial Revolution.  I bet the brain of a kid working in a factory (The Industry Native) changed from that of a kid working on a farm.  I would image the brain of a kid who lived in a community with a fire at night (the Technology Native) differed from the brain of his or her kin whose family group had not yet tamed fire.  I would bet that infants and toddlers born during the WWII Blizkreigs have a few different nooks and crannies than did those born in quieter times.  

Some characteristics of the Digital Brain are that they switch tasks pretty damned fast, aka "multi-tasking."  Other bloggers in the class have written well about the difficulty this can cause in performance.  Dopamine addiction and cortisol cascades are not to be trifled with.  However, brains adapt; they are incredibly "plastic."  If you have ever watched a stroke or brain-injured patient in rehab, or practicing a newly recovered function, you are beholding the very real marvel of that brain rewiring itself to route away from the dead stuff, and to reconnect with functional pathways.  An amazing and exhausting process.  

Perhaps Digitally-brained Natives are an evolutionary advance. Maybe not.  However, their brains are different for better or for worse, and will probably be the norm until the next great big societal shift.

(You Digital Natives out there, just don't freak out when it is your turn to become the Immigrant!)