Book review: Screen Brain

Recently, I read a book titled "Screen Brain," which delves into the adverse effects digital devices have on us.

The emergence of the internet represents less than 0.001% of human history, yet it has completely transformed our lives.

Just wrote this article to record some of the interesting points on the book.

Negative impact using smart phones.

1. Increase anxiety
2. Increase self-centeredness and decrease empathy
3. Make oneself and people around us unhappier
4. Inability to focus on one thing for a long period of time
5. Reduce sleep time and quality, leading to poorer health

Setting of our brain

Our brain has default settings to let our body function properly including:

• Sleeping well
• Exercise regularly
• Having meaningful social connections

These three are fundamental.

Other Setting of our brain includes:

1. We like to talk about ourself

• Nucleus accumbens which is a happiness Hub: It reacts to sex, communication, food and drink, and operates positively when talking about himself or herself.

2. Focus on negative emotions / gossip :

• Xenophobia : avoiding being hurt by enemies

3. Prefer distraction:

• the brain is rewarded when distracted. We pay attention to the surroundings to avoid danger → in modern society, this make us unable to concentrate.

4. Not good at multitasking :

• Because we have to concentrate on handling the crisis.

5. Like to learn new things, meet new people, go to new places:

• Increase chance of survival (cells in our brain secretes dopamine respond to new things)

Source of Stress

The source of stress has changed.

• It used to be three minutes determining life or death
• Now it's a thirty-year mortgage.
• So we are depressed.

The Real Benefits of Exercise

The brain is built to drive the body.

• Exercise has proven benefits for enhancing focus.
• Consistency in exercise yields the greatest results.
• 45 minutes / 3 times a week → proven effective
• Aerobic exercise is effective.
• High-intensity exercise for over 20 minutes can lead to sustained improvements in attention for 24 hours to over a week.

There have been experiments confirming that exercise effectively enhances focus:

• the exercise group exhibited better impulse control and improved cognitive biases (they are less likely to perceive sounds towards themselves as louder).

Because in the past, there was a need to evade pursuit and engage in strenuous labor. In such conditions, we evolved to enhance our focus.

Exercise is somewhat like a helper in evolution.

People who exercise are less likely to experience overwhelming stress because they are constantly adapting to stress and preparing for it.

Overall, this article is to record some of the key points I found in the book that I think are valuable and beneficial to our life.