Clearly it affects us on a neurological level. For the young, it may be comparable to the way language affects us developmentally.
Language, and the possibility for abstract thought it grants us, is something that is developed early in life. Beyond a certain age, people are unable to develop the neurological capacity for language beyond a very limited vocabulary and simply grammar. (This may happen with emotional development as well.) But if you get linguistic interaction, it's extremely easy for people to pick up language, and how they pick it up affects how their mind uses it. For example, children who learn language through sign instead of auditory input use a larger portion of their brain when talking, accessing spatial & proprioceptive areas non-signers don't use. This occurs irrespective of whether they're using sign or speech to communicate. (If you're interested, Oliver Sacks' book Seeing Voices is a good starting point for understanding signing, deafness, & neurological development). In the same way, I think children who are learning and interacting digitally, using controllers, mice, and keyboards, may also be developing their minds differently from children learning with books and writing. I don't think a judgment like "better" or "worse" could be made on this, but certainly it would be a qualitative difference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36180 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
