The BBC reported today that the Internet is now a proven defence against mental decline, joining the ranks with crosswords and book reading, helping us steer clear of Dementia and Alzheimer.
No doubt this is also good news for the majority of web surfers who have felt occasional twinges of guilt at those ‘wasted’ Sunday afternoons when nomadically roaming the Internet for fun. We can all relax in the knowledge that computers are making our brains bigger and better.
But wait, was it not reported in the mass media just a few months ago that internet search engines have dumbed down the population, turning us into mouse clicking zombies and devaluing past traditional skills of discovering knowledge through resourcefulness and ingenuity? Surely not.
The BBC seems to become a little over-excited at the latest do’s and don’t of a healthy lifestyle. For instance, one week the news website suggests that coffee drinking is the carcinogenic road to cancer, the next week it reports on ‘ground-breaking’ research that coffee is good for us and five cups a day will see us to our 150th birthday. The BBC website is probably the best site on the Internet, but freshly published research often receives too much coverage, with the reports making a readable story, but not necessarily ones that will make it into the 21st century encyclopaedia.
But if they say Internet surfing will give me a smarter cerebrum, then who am I to argue? Pass me the mouse…
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