Will hyperconnected millennials suffer cognitive consequences?
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It's no secret that young Americans are always "on": They're often simultaneously checking email, tweeting, texting and updating their Facebook page while in class or a work meeting. The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project asked more than 1,000 researchers if they think these millennials will show future cognitive benefits or penalties due to their hyper-connected lives.
What did they find? People think this lifestyle will be both good and bad for millennials' future cognitive capacities.
According to the report overview, "Teens and young adults brought up from childhood with a continuous connection to each other and to information will be nimble, quick-acting multitaskers who count on the Internet as their external brain and who approach problems in a different way from their elders."
David Weinberger, senior researcher at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, will join The Daily Circuit to talk about the research.
"Whatever happens, we won't be able to come up with an impartial value judgment because the change in intellect will bring about a change in values as well," David Weinberger wrote in the Pew report .
Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and founder of iGen Consulting, will also join the discussion.
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