How Digital Technology Shapes Us

Overview

Explore our relationship with AI, robots, computing technology, video games, and much more as you examine the technologies that are rapidly transforming life in the 21st century. Most adults are concerned that children have much too much technology in their lives these days and are spending way too much time on screens. But as Professor Indre Viskontas points out in How Digital Technology Shapes Us, we are not the first to worry that new technology will harm our children and future generations.

At least since the beginning of recorded history, we have been underestimating the capacity of the human brain to adapt to and take advantage of emerging technologies. In this course, Professor Viskontas shares some of the most exciting research into this relatively new topic, providing a scientific approach to judging the true pros and cons of our interaction with technology in the digital age.

Many of us believe we are adjusting well to this new digital technology with its constant demands on our time and attention by increasing our multitasking. But multitasking cannot save us because our brain is capable of true multitasking. What we experience as multitasking is actually our brain flitting back and forth from this task to the next.

The good news is that just recognizing the significance of deep work and deep reading, we can make it a priority and arrange some time to focus on just that without distractions. Digital technology definitely shapes us. But once we learn how it does so, we can make good decisions for ourselves and our children.

Course Lessons

01: How Experience Alters the Brain

It is the adaptable nature of the human brain that has allowed us to become who we are today. Learn how our lived experience changes our brain wiring as well as the relative sizes of different brain regions.
Duration: 25 min

02: Are New Media Shortening Attention Spans?

Explore the impact of technology on our ability to perform “deep work” and whether or not multitasking is even a neurological possibility.
Duration: 27 min

03: Does the Internet Make Us Shallow Thinkers?

Compare the neurological difference between reading on the internet and reading a physical book—and understand why we need to ensure that the next generations acquire the skill of “deep reading.”
Duration: 27 min

04: Outsourcing Our Memory

Explore the positives and negatives of the internet with respect to memory creation, and learn how the latest technology might help us expand our memories.
Duration: 28 min

05: Human versus Digital Content Curators

Consider how much of your digital content is determined by an algorithm and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of these algorithms to make informed choices.
Duration: 28 min

06: Virtual Realities and Our Sense of Self

Explore the many ways in which virtual reality can affect us and learn why leaders of VR research are calling for a code of ethics.
Duration: 28 min

07: Screen Time’s Impact on Kids

Explore how increased screen time enriches or impoverishes children’s environments and how their emotions are influenced by digital media.
Duration: 29 min

08: Video Games and Violence

Dig into the fascinating studies addressing the issue of violent video games and their impact on cognitive development and perceptions of the world.
Duration: 28 min

09: Is Digital Technology Ruining Sleep?

Understand how technology affects the quality of our sleep and how it might help you sleep better, allowing your cognitive functions to be stronger the next day.
Duration: 27 min

10: How “Dr. Google” Is Changing Medicine

Consider the many ways in which technology has impacted the practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship, and the moral dilemmas that have resulted.
Duration: 23 min

11: The Virtual Therapist

Explore the many ways in which technology can help both mental-health patients and researchers, as well as the associated risks.
Duration: 28 min

12: How Big Data Can Predict the Future

Learn how big data is changing scientific research and deepening our view of ourselves and the world around us.
Duration: 26 min

13: Is Privacy Dead in the Information Age?

Examine the privacy paradox and our increasingly lax attitude toward our own privacy and its implications for our future.
Duration: 25 min

14: The Emotional Effects of Social Media

Explore the neurological basis of our social interactions and how they interact with our social media usage.
Duration: 24 min

15: How Online Dating Transforms Relationships

Discover potential differences between relationships that begin through online dating services versus those that begin more traditionally.
Duration: 25 min

16: Technology and Addiction

Learn how technology can “supercharge” experiences to affect us neurologically and biologically, particularly with respect to one of our strongest motivational drives: sex.
Duration: 28 min

17: Is the Internet Hurting Democracy?

Explore the mechanisms by which we make our political decisions and how technology can shape our political behavior.
Duration: 28 min

18: The Arts in the Digital Era

Examine how technology affects the artist’s ability to learn deliberatively and experiment with all options.
Duration: 27 min

19: How AI Can Enhance Creativity

Learn about the many ways in which AI might help us become more creative than ever before.
Duration: 27 min

20: Do We Trust Algorithms over Humans?

Dive into the world of machine learning to discover whether machines can teach themselves and the implications for ourselves.
Duration: 27 min

21: Could Blockchain Revolutionize Society?

Explore the potential of blockchain technology to enhance online transactions and lessen concerns about hacking.
Duration: 22 min

22: Effects of Technological Metaphors on Science

Consider the limitations of the computer metaphor for understanding the human brain and what scientists might miss by continuing to use it.
Duration: 28 min

23: Robots and the Future of Work

Discover what skills for success the next generation will need in a society with automation and robots.
Duration: 26 min

24: Redefining What It Means to Be Human

Explore our current definitions of human life and death to better understand where we are now and where we might be headed.
Duration: 32 min