Digital autism

Introduction
How are you treating your brain? You pay attentions at your pimples, body issues, back
pain, but the main question is: How do you treat your brain? If you never were thinking of this,
then be ready, a lot of inventions are waiting for you.
Our brain is an incredible organ, it takes just 2% of general body weight, but at the same
time takes 20% of body’s energy. By the way, just 12% are gone for digestion of food, so after a
hearty lunch you can say that you did a nice job. So, an adult brain takes 20% of energy to work,
but for a child it takes already 40%. In other words, just to think we need about 500 kcal daily.
Three brain networks
Earlier people were seeing brain as an organ divided into different regions, where every
region does specifically its own function. But it turned out that the brain is like a densely
branched network of neurons, like an intertwined highway along which impulses go back and
forth.
Do you want to see what a neural map of our brain looks like? This is result of a world-
wide project in which a Brain Connectome was built. Neural Network Map. Surprisingly, distant
parts of the brain can communicate with each other, for example, the front of the brain can
communicate with the back. To get such a picture, it was required to explore not 6 regions, or
even 50, but about 500. In these millions of threads, similar to roads, are: knowledge, perception,
personality and soul if you please, in other words, this is YOU.
Then, it turned out that you can work in three modes. All your states are regulated by
three networks, and the first of them is The Central Executive Network. It is energized when we
consume information, so, if now I put you in the MRI, then exactly these areas will light up.
They are also active when we focus on certain tasks: write text, collect detail, prepare report,
watch video.
And people may say: “What other networks do we need? There was a task – the brain
turned on, then we lay down to rest – the brain turned off”. And this is where the Default Work
Network comes into play. We will call it the Default Network. This is the most interesting.
The Default Network is active when we think of … “nothing”. When we are not carried
away by external stimulators. At this moment al the events that happened to you fit into the
picture of the world. It is not just archiving events and working with memory, this is the
definition of what is Good and what is Bad, developing and emotional response to the
experience, the formation of a model of the world and most importantly – of your place in the
world. It is this network that give us answers when you did not expect, in this state you shout
“Eureka!”, in this state you think creatively.
But in a healthy brain, these two networks cannot be active at the same time. When the
first is active, the second slows down its work. The coordinator is the third network – The
Network of Significance. It is the one that determines how much the information is important for
you personally. From an evolutionary point of view, this network suggested what would help us
to survive and what potentially is life-threatening.
 And now it still suggests which videos are worth watching and which ones to skip. That’s
why bloggers on YouTube are struggling to simplify the material as much as possible: over a
beautiful picture and enticing cover. All YouTube channels follow the same path of
simplification and decoration, to make your Network of Significance constantly told to the
Executive Network: “Consume! Consume! Consume!”. Primitiveness and beauty are what our
brain need. That’s why TikTok bummed like that, that’s why it has millions of fans. See for
yourself, here on the screen the scenario of this presentation and an Instagram recommendation.
Where did your eyes go? To the Instagram recommendation: boobs, jokes, TikToks., and this
can be someone’s inner world! This is our brain, always choosing what is easier.
Probably for like 70 years already, the civilization of the text began its transformation
into a civilization of the video. Andrei Kurpatov picked up a very accurate description:
“Gutenberg era is getting replaced by Zuckerberg era”.
And during this period, it is most important for us to understand how our brain works.
And to great surprise, it turned out that architecture of neural connections changes over the years.
On the screen you can see a mathematical model of brain connectivity. This brain is about 7 and
a half years old. Its networks: Executive, of Significance and Default are scattered anatomically.
In other words, such a structure is established by nature. As you can see the elements of the
Default System are loosely coupled with each other, sure, what is the child at this time having
reflection and model of the world? But, over the years, the architecture of neural works is
changing the structure, is strengthened in order to work efficiently, even if the elements are
located in different parts of the brain. You can compare before and after. In other words, the
young person does not just gain knowledge of the world, he is programing his own brain.
What makes us Stupider?
And here’s the problem – we live in a hyper informational environment, where every free
minute we scroll the news, feed message or videos, and then the Executive Network is activated,
the Default Network is suppressed. And if a person constantly consume content, then the brain
goes into hibernation. In other words, people who do not poke their eyes out of the phone, rarely
turn on their heads, think stereotypically and do not develop. Instead of discoveries and changes,
they consume memes all the time, and the whole agenda is lined up around memes. People no
longer just laugh of memes; they think with them! And this despite the fact that 90% of the
energy the brain spends just on the Default Network, like the one constructing the personality
itself. But then after work or study, where Executive Network is dominating, we are like “taking
rest” in the phone, as a result, we simply atrophy our thinking server, which until 25 years is still
in the stage of formation and especially flexible.
It is not a secret for anyone that we are online most of our time. According to various
sources, if we measure with application and not just poll, then we will find out that we spend
about 11 hours. Moreover, all users are faced with common problem – concentration of attention,
because we check our smartphone every 12 minutes and this is where appears conflict with our
nature. The fact is that it takes us 23 minutes to fully immerse ourselves in the task after we are
distracted, 23 minutes to catch the working wave. It is clear that in reality we will continue to
work immediately after the distraction, but for such a ragged mode our nervous system pays. We
suffer from a lot of stress and dissatisfaction with the quality of work. Given that every 12
minutes we are distracted by the phone and to get into a work rhythm and a task we need 23
minutes, then we hurt ourselves every time.
 Overall, a lot of research indicates that overuse of smartphone has a negative impact on
users: increased stress levels, decreased self-esteem. These are the most cited features in the
literature. Moreover, the frequency of sticking to the phone is associated with the severity of
depression and social anxiety. Some works even provide exact numbers. Here, if a person spends
more than two and a half hours on the phone, then his depressive thoughts and suicidal
tendencies are increasing. A Japanese study says it is worth worrying after five hours a day. But
in general, almost all works are based on surveys, in this case it is not a very relevant source.
Well, for example depression is a very serious diagnosis made by a psychiatrist. And who of you
will say that he has never had a sense of unhappiness, the meaninglessness of being and feeling
that you are not appreciated? But, from the other, side it is wrong to ignore the abundance of the
results of such studies. This is only the basis for future work.
Next Israel research is much more interesting. They did follow: took two groups of avid
smartphone users and those who never used them. Where did they find these dinosaurs, is
unclear? And, in addition to surveys, they were checked with tasks and brain activity was
screened on an encephalogram. Active smartphone users showed pronounced signs of ADHD
and they were generally more impulsive and less attentive. But the most important thing is that
when non-users were given phones for use, then after three months their computational abilities
fell, but inattention appeared and concerns about social approval. Well, how can you live
peacefully looking at an ideal life of beautiful people on Instagram. Like it or not, but you will
fall into despondency when they have it like this … and you have shredded pants. It happened in
just three months of using the phone and people did not stick in it 24 by 7.
The question remains open : How much does the mobile phone affect the architecture of
the brain while perennial to use, about which the next research is written: “Active smartphone
users also showed increased impulsivity, impaired attention, function which correlated with
abnormal signal transmission between the hemispheres and decreased excitability of prefrontal
neurons”. Exactly where most of our Default Network is located, which appears to be sleeping.
People with a degraded Default Network not only have difficulties with processing their past
experience, but also developing scenarios of their future. They have motivation problem. At best,
they are waiting for a video about self-development, but for some reason this self-development
never comes.
The shocking fact was that the mere presence of a smartphone nearby reduces cognitive
abilities. ◊ 520 students were given the same assignments. The only difference was that some of
them put the phone on the desk in front of them, the second put it in the bag and the third left it
in another room. ◊ It turned out that having a phone nearby greatly reduces our operational
memory and mobile intelligence. People get stupid when the phone is near. This is explained as
follows, imagine: we have a conditional maximum power for solving the problem, but if our
attention is constantly dragged onto something else, then the percentage of errors will naturally
increase and we will start to slow down the process. If the phone is in sight, it constantly beeps to
us: “Go to the social network, relax, quit this business”, and even if you don’t, signals are
received and you spend effort not to break. It turns out that the more you basically depend on the
phone, the more it affects you. Or more optimistic: the more you depend on the phone, the more
you can improve the capabilities of your brain. By the way, that’s why we experience phantom
vibration when it seems to us that someone wrote. Too deeply the phone has merged with our
life that 89% of people experienced such an effect.
 Researchers advise taking the phone to another room to increase your cognitive
performance, because even if it is turned off, even if you turned the screen down, its very
presence will slow you down.
Digital autism, such a term is suggested by A. Kurpatov. It was on the basis of his lecture
that this presentation was made. Digital autism is the inability to focus not only on tasks but also
inability to maintain long-term psychological contact with a person when there is a feeling that
the person can be easily replaced.
In my opinion, if the Default Network is responsible for self-identification, for building
model of the world, for processing the past and forecasting the future, and hyper load of the
Executive Network oppresses the Default one, then when a person is left alone with himself, he
feels anxiety, fear and hopelessness, he is simply uncomfortable in this world, because the
Default System did not manage to build the personal structure of his world, so he is looking for
ways to lull the Default Network and load the Executive one, injecting another dose of
informational drug.
It is important to understand one thing: when it seems to us that we are doing nothing, our
brain works. The activity of the Default Network is maintained when we sleep and think about
“nothing”. At this moment the Default Network builds our version of the world.
What can be done to improve the performance at 3 brain networks?
 Meditation helps the Network of Significance. In other words, meditation help us
to consciously choose between important and unimportant, and not to be dictated
by trends;
 the rule of Digital hygiene – such as, for example, putting the phone away while
working favorably affect Executive Network;
 next, when you go somewhere or drive, it is not necessary to always turn on
music, sometimes we just need to be alone with ourselves, because if this is not
done, then ultimately our inner voice will become disgusting to us;
 sit down for 10 minutes in silence and watch your thoughts, if is uncomfortable
you have some things to work on.