Brain, Internet, Creativity, Distraction

There is so much information on the internet, no matter out of date or up to date. I was initially very excited by the easy access of information on the internet.

Over the internet, we browse news website or blogs, make Skype calling or IM chat, Google whatever we would like to know. We do not have to remember detailed knowledge by heart. Some people even use tools such as evernote, pocket to collect those information they think it is worth to collect. Years of this kind of experience made me sometimes imagine how our life would be if we do not have computer and internet? Would it be a mess? I do not know.

But what I did experience in the past is when I was enjoying the benefit of the internet I was also suffering a lot due to the internet. I do not have to remember so much information causing me remember less and less over time, but then the creativity also decreased to a large extent. Every time when I try to recall some knowledge, I find it is really difficult, just because I did not try to understand and remember those important things. Then when I want to deduce something new, the flow in my mind is then blocked just because there is not enough basic information to start. This is really frustrating especially for a researcher who always try to explore the new knowledge for the whole human being.

On the other hand, using internet distract me quite often, which is often wasting time. For example, when I want to search a paper, then I find an article seems interesting and begin to have a look. Finally when I realize my initial aim is just to find that article I have already past one hour. Nothing is more terrible than wasting time.

I do not know how to deal with this kind of problems caused by the use of internet. What I can do is realizing the problem seriously, and face it. The next step is to reduce the use of internet by limiting the online time, focus on my real work. Fighting against the dependency of electric tools such as most of computer software, I should use more paper and pen, try to remember those important knowledge, this would helps the creativity of a researcher.

Maybe my brain has not been evoluted to the fast changing internet era. But I have to figure out a solution.