Is Technology Diminishing Our Cognitive Abilities?

During college, I worked in long-term care providing nursing assistance to elderly patients living with various forms of dementia. Supporting someone through a decline in their cognitive abilities is heart-wrenching. The residents I cared for included retired military, high school principals, business leaders, farmers, musicians, and artists. 

I’ll never forget coming onto my shift and walking up to “Ms. G” - a regionally acclaimed pianist and retired music professor sitting at the piano in the facility’s great room with her hands suspended over the keys and tears streaming down her face crying, “I forgot, I forgot, I forgot…”

I tried to comfort her, and she reacted by slinging the heavy music book across my face, pushing me to the ground, and yelling for me to “Go to hell!” 

Such a response was not uncommon with dementia patients.

Collectively Losing Our Brain Power

Cognitive decline is part of our natural aging process; however, I now observe many of the behaviors encountered during my years in memory care across many ages in our modern world. People can’t manage communication or follow through with follow-ups, they act irrationally and erratically in relationships, and many seem unable to sustain any type of repeatable social engagements - whether completing the requirements of volunteer board service or maintaining activity in a membership organization.  

For a while, I blamed the lack of cognitive abilities and subsequent conduct on the collective “brain fog” of the pandemic. I reasoned that folks got out of practice with interacting with one another.

Perhaps that’s part of it. But the evidence of something being “off” continues to linger and makes me wonder - what does technology have to do with this perceived cognitive decline?

According to recent reports, people really are losing their cognitive abilities at much faster rates than observed in previous generations. Specifically, cognitive losses across all ages have been seen in the ability to focus and concentrate, along with unexplained losses in problem-solving, reasoning, and processing skills. All of these cognitive ability measures are used to calculate aspects of human “intelligence.”

There are many theories regarding how technology is eroding our intelligence. Maybe it’s the effects of Wi-Fi beaming through our bodies. Maybe it’s because we’ve replaced long-form reading with incessant doom-scrolling on social media. Maybe it’s because we no longer “exercise” our reasoning neurons as we have Google, Siri, and ChatGTP to answer things for us, and our “thinking muscles” are severely atrophied.

The Missing Piece: Technology Is Replacing Human Interaction

As a technology professional who’s been up to her eyeballs in cyber-things for the past 20 years, I think those arguments play a part in cognitive decline; however, I think there’s a key part of this “invasion of technology” that we’re refusing to look at and as a result, our brains are suffering immensely - our technology usage patterns have replaced human-to-human interaction that is needed to keep our brains healthy. 

Working in long-term care, I observed some dementia patients’ decline plateau or even start to reverse when they were moved from living alone and into a community-based living arrangement where they routinely interacted with other people. My own grandmother had a similar occurrence. I lived with her for part of my college experience, and during that time, her cognitive abilities rallied - the “fog” that had plagued her for some long seemed to lift, and she was able to enjoy many of the activities, places, and people that had prior to the dementia diagnosis.

So many people I interact with today exhibit many of the behaviors my grandmother and the residents I care for displayed. Those people were in their 80s. The folks I observe these behaviors in today are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. What’s driving this cognitive cloud?

Loneliness has been shown to increase dementia occurrence by 31%. If social isolation plays such a big part in our cognitive function, then why don’t we do something about it? Why don’t we plan social get-togethers, invite friends out to lunch on a regular basis, and invest in community organizations? Are people living in isolation aware of how their lifestyle is already affecting their cognitive abilities?

Why Social Interaction Matters

Interacting with people in person provides so much more real-time feedback and cognitive “exercise” than messaging or social media. We humans are social creatures. Our brains were wired to require the input and stimulation of other human beings. We are truly herd animals - not meant to live alone. Yet, counter to our programmed systems, we are living lives that have essentially removed other people from the equation.

We know that excessive technology use diminishes our brain’s ability to think and work properly, and we have replaced positive social interactions with a digital babysitter. Technology doesn't talk back, it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t leave you questioning yourself. Getting lost in your phone is a pacifier of life, allowing you to avoid all the more complex situations out there when it comes to people and social groups. The thing is that when we remove navigating human complexity from our lives, we lose cognitive abilities to function and think clearly. 

How to Rebuild Your Cognitive Strength

Want to improve your cognitive abilities? You don’t have to swear off technology. When used responsibly, it can be a great tool; however, when used as a replacement for in-person relationships, it literally warps your brain. Quick actions to take:

• Every week, invite 2-3 people out to coffee, lunch, or even a walk

• Schedule checking-in with your long-time friends every month or quarter. 

• Identify 2-3 non-work social group activities to plug into. Not sure where to start? Try (or start) an interest group that meets up routinely, enroll in an in-person class, get involved in a community organization, join a faith-based community, volunteer two hours a month - replace the time you’re spending on pointless technology usage with real people in real-world interactions. 

Collectively, we’ve replaced people with technology and it’s warping our brains and making us all kinds of unhealthy. I’ve lost hope in one big mass movement to right the course on this front. If you want to change it, you have to start with your own life and the people you (potentially) can connect with. We can’t blame this negative phenomenon all on technology - the fault lies in how we choose to utilize it in our own lives, and how we continue to let it erode the fabric of our communal society. 

After working with hundreds of memory care patients for years, I’m terrified of developing dementia. Not being able to recognize my loved ones, know where I am, and recall the best days of my life, is a special kind of hell I hope to never experience. If medicine announced there was a drug that could reduce my dementia risk by 31%, I would take it in a minute and I bet there are a few of you out there too that would jump on a pharmaceutical solution to cognitive collapse.

The Future of Human Cognition

We know our current decisions to replace human interaction with technology are increasing our risk of dementia, yet we continue to simply scroll on. Don’t be that person - take this time to reconnect with people in person. Plan it, coordinate, stick it on the calendar, show up, and repeat. Refine your social skills, re-evaluate your technology usage behaviors, and commit to a healthier relationship with both technology and humankind. Your cognitive future may depend on it.