‘Digital Dementia’

We have all heard of dementia, with over 800,000 people in the UK living with it, it is hard not to have. But what about the term ‘Digital Dementia’, a relatively new phrase used to describe the early onset of the disease caused by a reliance on digital devices?

The term ‘Digital Dementia’ was first coined by South Korean doctors, who noticed a worrying pattern in those reliant and continually exposed to digital devices and smartphones. What they noticed was a deterioration in cognitive abilities, more commonly seen in people who have suffered a brain injury or a psychiatric illness.

Byun Gi-won, a doctor at the Brain Balance Centre in Seoul, linked the overuse of smartphones and game devices with an unbalanced development of the brain; meaning that the left side of the brain–responsible for logic, reasoning and language–will develop well, with the left side of the brain–responsible for recognising faces, creativity and concentration-being relatively underdeveloped. This underdevelopment of the right side of the brain will affect attention and memory span, as well as emotional development, he told the JoongAng Daily newspaper; with younger brains being more at risk due to continued growth.

German neuroscientist, Dr Manfred Spitzer, also warned of the issue of ‘Digital Dementia’ with his 2012 book of the same name. He called for an outright ban of digital media in German classrooms, believing that it reduces the brains ability to perform basic learning functions and any deficits in brain development as a result, are irreversible.

Whatever the affects, the prospect of an early onset dementia caused by digital devices is a scary prospect. With the Telegraph reporting that the average smartphone user spends more than 2 hours per day on their phone and a recent New Media Trend Watch report predicting that 30.9 million of us will own a smartphone by the end of the year, digital dementia might be the future for most.