Have you ever spent too much time on the computer, done hours of homework, and and felt like your brain was going to explode from all of the information you just shoved into your brain? In the article “Don’t Touch That Dial!” by Vaughan Bell, he writes about of people who give warning about the bad effects too much information and data have on the mind. A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, tried to warn people of being overwhelmed with too much. Even though Gessner died in 1565, each generation comes with new technology that gives more and more information.
Socrates said children should not write about fantasies, but only about real life. When newspapers came out, people thought it would socially isolate readers. Then, as schools became introduced, concerns followed as people thought education was unnatural and a risk to mental health while. Bell discusses the risk of radios, magazines, computers, and different internet sites being harmful to people’s brains causing a “brain overload.”
The tone of this article suggests that Bell agrees with brain overload. Bell says we almost never hear about these technology scares because technology is common and widely used.
School can be overwhelming. Stress comes and it can be somewhat harmful to children, but it is nowhere near harmful enough to not educate. Technology teaches people. Some technology can distract people from important things: homework, studying, etc. But technology is a way of relieving stress from too much information.
A lot of information and technology can be overwhelming and stressful; but, it teaches people to be more organized. The more organized students are in school, the less stressed and overwhelmed they will be. Extra things like the internet, Facebook, television, and magazines are only things to fill time and entertain students. If those things were too much for our brains, we would stop using them.