Book Review - iBrain

We've all heard of, and probably experienced, a generation gap-- the feeling that other generations come from a slightly different culture than our own, and understand the world through the prism of that other culture. iBrain, a recent book by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan, suggests that in recent years the gap between the generations has become something deeper-- a brain gap.


Their premise is straightforward. Whenever you interact with your environment, you strengthen some neural connections and weaken others. As you interact with other people, the connections in your brain that help you interact with other people become strengthened. When you interact with computers, televisions, cell phones, and video games, the connections that make you successful at working with technology become strengthened. It stands to reason. If repeating an action didn't strengthen neural connections, then there'd be no benefit to practice or rehearsal. Just imagine: the first time you tried to play an instrument would be as good (and as bad!) as the thousandth.



But Small and Vorgan take the premise a little further. They believe digital natives, the generations that have grown up with technology, have spent so much time interacting with that technology that their brains actually work differently from the brains of digital imigrants. Focusing on the digital world has left digital natives ill-prepared to maintain people skills. Some digital natives, they contend, have been so caught up in the digital world from such an early age that they may have missed the zone of proximal development that would have allowed them to develop a reasonable level of social skill. And they devote some space to reflections on the connection technology use may have to increasing numbers of diagnoses of autism.


iBrain is divided into three parts: the first presenting the case for the brain gap between the generations; the next devoted to steps you can take to reclaim your people skills if you've been spending too much time in the digital world; and the last sharing information on how to get your technical skills up to snuff if you're still lagging behind in technology world.



Because of it's premise, the structure of the book makes sense to me; the authors are trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. For this reader, though, the material in the first section of the book deserved a more thorough presentation. A hundred pages seems like a pretty cursory look at the research that supports their premise. Still, it recaps some interesting research, and draws some conclusions worth reading.