Digital technology has become omnipresent. Over the past two decades, we have become more and more dependent on smartphones, tablets, and PC devices. Last year’s epidemic pushed this digital wave to new heights.

Smartphones are a popular communication form worldwide in this century and are likely to remain as such, especially among adolescents. The phone has evolved from basic communicative functions–calls only–to being a computer-replacement device, used for web browsing, games, instant communication on social media platforms, and work-related productivity tools, e.g. word processing. Smartphones undoubtedly keep us connected; however, many individuals are now obsessed with them.

Conventional wisdom says that over-reliance on technology may affect us in a bad way. It may weaken our memory, concentration, and self-control abilities. These are obviously important cognitive abilities. However, this fear may not be based on fact.

Technology changes society

Socrates, the father of philosophy, was deeply worried about the impact of writing technology on society. The oral skill of speech has higher demands on memory function. He was worried that writing will eliminate the need for people to learn and exercise memory.

Plato once quoted Socrates’ famous saying:

When people have mastered the ability to write, forgetfulness will also take root in the depths of the soul; they no longer need to exercise memory, because what they write is enough to remind themselves. As a result, people will no longer rely on the inside, but use external signs to evoke memories.

This passage is very interesting.

Firstly :

It represents an intergenerational discussion among early philosophers about the impact of emerging technologies on the cognitive abilities of future generations. To this day, similar debates still exist. Telephone, radio, and television all have been considered as the “destroyers” of cognitive abilities.

Second interesting reason:

Although Socrates was very worried, modern humans are still able to retrieve information from memory at any time. Technology only reduces the need for certain cognitive functions. But it does not affect our actual execution capabilities.

Cognitive deterioration

Apart from the sensational rhetoric of the mass media, there are also scientific discoveries that prove that technology can make cognitive ability worse. However, after careful analysis of these points of view, we will find that there are two important premise assumptions:

1) it is assumed that this influence has a lasting impact on long-term cognitive ability;

2) it is assumed that digital technology has a significant direct and unlimited impact on cognition. However, neither of these two hypotheses has been supported by any practical research.

We can see that all influential conclusions are only temporary, not long-term. For example,In a study on the dependence of humans on external memory forms, when participants were told that certain information would be stored on a computer and accessible at any time, their ability to remember the content of the information would decrease. At the same time, if they learn that if they forget, the content of the information will be impossible to recover, their memory will quickly improve.
The use of technology does show “signs” of memory decline. But if there is no technology to rely on, the subjects can still revamp their memory’s ability at any time. Therefore, it is too sloppy to say that technology will damage human memory.

In addition, the impact of digital technology on cognition may also depend on the enthusiasm of the individual, not just the cognitive process. In fact, cognitive processes often have completely different modes of operation under the background of different motivations of different individuals. Specifically, the more we can find sufficient internal drive in a certain task, the higher the degree of devotion and concentration. If this is the case, then there will be a different interpretation of the experimental data-at least it does not simply mean that the smartphone will destroy continuous attention, working memory, or functional liquid intelligence.
Motivational factors have a considerable influence on the results of the research. After all, participants often think that the tasks they are required to complete are boring or irrelevant. Since we are accustomed to using digital technology to deal with daily affairs such as dealing with messages, replying to e-mails, and enjoying entertainment, the intervention of digital technology may weaken the incentive effect in experimental tasks.
The important thing is that all of this means that digital technology does not damage cognition-if a task is really important or attractive, people’s ability to perform will not be destroyed by smartphones.

Changes in cognition

In order to use digital technology for training, the internal cognitive process pays less attention to information storage and calculation; on the contrary, the cognitive process is used to converting information into a format that can be transferred to digital devices-such as searching for phrases, and then reloading them and explanation. This kind of cognitive transfer is like people gradually learning to record the results of phased thinking on paper, instead of relying on their own heads to memorize them; or to give a more intuitive example, children break their fingers and make simple calculations.

The main difference between the two is that, compared with analog tools, digital technology can help us transfer complex information sets more efficiently without any loss of accuracy. In this way, we can free ourselves from a few specialized functions and use internal cognitive abilities to handle other core tasks. From a cognitive perspective, digital technology actually allows us to achieve greater achievements than ever before.

Therefore, it is not necessary to regard digital technology as the enemy of our internal cognitive process; on the contrary, it is expanding our working capabilities and expanding our cognitive boundaries.

You could also try boosting your memory based on these principles

Tip 1: Make Time for Meditation
Tip 2: Give your brain a workout
Tip 3: Don’t skip the physical exercise
Tip 4: Get your Zs
Tip 5: Make time for friends
Tip 6: Get Your Vitamin D Levels Tested. Levels shouldn’t be low.
Tip 7: Keep stress in check
Tip 8: Have a hearty laugh
Tip 9: Eat a brain-boosting diet
Tip 10: Identify and treat health problems
Tip 11: Drink less Alcohol

This is a very complicated world. In this world, there are many different views and ways of thinking. As a programmer, I will also have programmers’ thinking. The programmer’s thinking is closer to mathematical thinking. The mathematical way of thinking makes it easy to geographically understand this chaotic world. In fact, you don’t need too complicated mathematical logic. You only need to use some simple mathematical methods to greatly improve your cognitive ability. Record a piece of my own way of thinking, on the one hand for your reference, but also for higher-level people to correct me. It is “open-source my way of thinking”. The opening is not only for output, but also to see if there is a better way.

In my way of thinking, I use mathematical logic to think. Generally speaking, I use a five-step way of thinking:

The first step: the information needs to be verified. 

If the data of an opinion or an opinion is wrong, it will cause all the later opinions to be wrong. Therefore, the first thing is to verify or verify the data. In general, if the author of an article is rigorous enough, he needs to establish relevant references to his data or a method that can be verified. If an article appears, “relevant expert statement”, “American scientist’s proof”, “economist pointed out”, but there is no source, nor the name of the expert or scientist, or, Describe or cite methods that readers can verify themselves. Then, the quoted data or data cannot be verified. If it cannot be verified, then the water content of this article is very great. In general, when I read that there is no verifiable source or method for the contents of an article, generally, I will not read it again, because the value of this article is not significant anymore, if I care In this article, I will change the way to find it myself, although it becomes “heavy”, but it is very safe. (So, sites like Wikipedia are where I often go to get information, because information can be verified as its basic value)

Step 2: Process the collection and its containment relationships . This is a very simple mathematical logic for everyone. For example: a philosopher is a person and Plato is a philosopher, so Plato is a person. It’s an inference under an include relation. Don’t underestimate this simple logic. In fact, many people will not apply it well. On the contrary, when the emotions dominate them, they will replace their universality with dots and special cases. For example, map cannons are one type. They saw multiple cases, and they started to increase this case to a larger range. For example, Henan people, Xinjiang people are thieves, and Shanghai people are small citizens. The Japanese are perverted and anti-human … wait. In addition to these map guns, there are also people who deny the whole person. For example, if a person makes a mistake or has a defect in his personality, the whole person will be completely negated, and the employee’s grabbing the moon cake will rise to his value … In the logical inclusion of mathematics, the definition of the superset can be applied to the subset. The characteristics of the subset can be used to explore the superset, but it is not possible to define the superset. In addition, the size of the set is also a very important thing. Survivor bias can be a trap that is easy to fall because there may be a large sample set in your blind spot.

Step 3: Handle logical causality . The so-called causality is actually distinguishing sufficient and necessary conditions and sufficient and necessary conditions, and then processing whether the logic in them is related and has a very strong causality. The inability to distinguish between sufficient and necessary conditions to deal with causality is the fault of many people. Like I am ” efforts will be successful , said the same,” the “effort” and “successful” Is there a causal relationship? All kinds of logical confusion, concept stealing, fuzzy cause and effect, and speculation are all here. For example: covering the ears and stealing bells and cutting swords are signs of chaos in causality. People often confuse the two things that seem to happen together, but are not related. Causality is most likely to be obscured and stolen. For example, many people are easily confused that “overtime” will have “outputs”, confused “action” will have “results”, and confused “resistance” will win “Respect” confuses “criticism” equals “opposition” … and so on. In addition to these, many of the current comment articles in the WeChat public account have no causality in their conclusions and arguments. Many articles are confusing, vague, and fraudulent … Read more articles about causality problems. Keep away from brain damage .

Step 4: Find a reliable baseline . Just like when we write code, we all look for some best practices or industry standards. The reason is that such things have been reviewed by many people in the world for a long time. It is worth relying on and reliable. Yes, they will take into account many issues that you have not considered. Therefore, you will also see that many reviews will look for developed countries in Europe and the United States for reference, because after all, people’s culture is relatively civilized, scientific, open and advanced. Finding universal or international standards will make progress easier. For example, the mentality of strengthening communication through openness and tolerance is much better than the mentality of closing and resisting hostility. The wise build a bridge and the fool build a wall. Of course, we are also beginning to find that in some cases, those that are good for ourselves are benchmarked, and those that are not good for ourselves are not benchmarked. In addition, except for good things, bad things are also being benchmarked in Europe and the United States. “Baseline” and “random baseline”, this method requires our careful discrimination.

Step 5: Deeper and higher-dimensional thinking . If one thing is only thinking on the surface, it is actually a shallow thinking. When Amazon, the online system fails, you need to write a report of the “Correction of Errors”, which requires Ask 5 Whys (see Wikipedia ’s Five Whys term) Article ), this way of thinking can allow you to continuously ask deep-seated essential questions, and will allow you to do a lot of investigation and research yourself, so that you will not become a simple animal that only thinks on the surface. For example: When you see something unexpected (such as a negative violent event), you need to ask why it happened and why? Then list the reasons as possible as possible, and then continue to question and copy the evidence (this is the same as writing a program, you need to consider and analyze from the positive case and the negative case to write a strong code), we only Will come up with a more robust answer or structure.

The “independent thinking” of more people is actually nothing but random thinking without rules.

From the above five points, I believe you can easily identify or distinguish which information is reliable and which information is ridiculous, and even improve your own speech and thinking.
But that’s enough, if one has the ability to distinguish right from wrong, it is also very good. Although you don’t know what the facts are, you won’t follow blindly and believable, so you won’t be instigated, and you will become a “broiler” behind the scenes.

Say a few more words, here are some of my personal practices:

When a news report does not cover objective facts but incorporates many points of view, the news report is not credible.

Critical articles cannot be fully trusted without sufficient authoritative evidence.

Information that is not public and that is intentionally shielded cannot be used as a trusted source of information.

When something is right or wrong, you must be very careful. There is no complete black or white in this world.

At this time, you should look at reports from different angles, gather more information, and ask why.
You are welcome to tell me some of your practices and ways of thinking.

Since many kids are/will be home from school, sharing an awesome list of ideas from a parent who home-schools. We are extremely thankful for the person who put together this list.
We just added links to these websites, YouTube channels.

If you have more suggestions please let us know in the comment section.

• BrainPop
• Curiosity Stream
• Tynker
• Outschool
• Udemy
• iReady
• Beast Academy (Math)
• Khan Academy
• Creative Bug
• Discovery Education
• Varsity Tutors 

•  Crash Course Kids –
• Science Channel –
• SciShow Kids –
• National Geographic Kids 
• Free School 
• Geography Focus
• TheBrainScoop
• SciShow
• Kids Learning Tube
• Geek Gurl Diaries
• Mike Likes Science
• Science Max
• SoulPancake

https://www.abcya.com/
Educational games for grades PreK through 6 that will keep kids engaged and having fun. Topics include math, reading, typing, just-for-fun logic games

https://www.funbrain.com/
FunBrain is an educational browser game website for children and adults. It was on this site that Diary of a Wimpy Kid was first published before being turned into a successful book series and movie franchise.

https://www.splashlearn.com/
SplashLearn is an award-winning math learning program used by more than 30 Million kids for fun math practice.

https://www.storylineonline.net/
Storyline Online is a FREE literacy resource where the world’s best storytellers read to children. During these times of #distancelearning, check out our digital library of 57 books & activity guides to help educate and entertain your kids at home!

https://pbskids.org/
Educational games and videos from Curious George, Wild Kratts and other PBS KIDS shows!

https://www.highlightskids.com/
The place for children of all ages to play games and discover new jokes, surveys, answers to science questions, and fun crafts and recipes from Highlights

https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
National Geographic Kids magazine really helps to bring the world to life, and gets your children excited about learning.

https://www.coolmath4kids.com/
Math and Games for Kids, Teachers and Parents. Math lessons and fun games for kindergarten to sixth grade, plus quizzes, brain teasers and more.

http://www.mathgametime.com/
Math Game Time offers free math games, worksheets, homework help & videos for teachers, parents & children.

https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/
Unite for Literacy provides free digital access to picture books, narrated in many languages.

http://www.literactive.com/Home/index.asp
The most comprehensive phonics-based reading program available for early learners.

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/
Science Kids is the home of science & technology on the Internet for children around the world.

https://www.switchzoo.com/
At Switch Zoo you can make new animals, play animal games, build a biome, learn about animals, and hear animal music.

https://www.seussville.com/
Theodor Seuss “Ted” Geisel was an American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, screenwriter, and filmmaker.
Seussville, the home of all things Dr. Seuss.

https://www.varsitytutors.com/
Virtual School Day: Over 100 free live K-12 classes available all day long intended to help parents fill their children’s day with enriched learning.  Some popular classes are “Intro to Spanish for Kids”, “Coolest Women in History”, “Java Programming Basics”, and “The Story of Your Favorite Fairy
Tales”. We have received exceptional ratings from thousands of parents and students. More info here: https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-school-day

Virtual Summer Camps: Free half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theatre, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more.
These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.
More info here: https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps

https://www.turtlediary.com/
Play educational kids games, computer games, printable worksheets and learning games online at turtlediary.com

https://www.e-learningforkids.org/
Free and fun digital education for children worldwide. E-learning for kids is a non-profit organization providing free, fun, curriculum-based quality primary education to all children worldwide. The foundation was launched in the USA in 2004 and in the Netherlands in 2007.

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