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Study finds memory decline surge in young people

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Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#61
post #33

The dismissal in these comments is astonishing.

I agree. Over the last 10 years, I've been growing in awareness of how in general people, developers, and their managers, and their company owners are incapable of the communications necessary for basic cooperation in project teams, in their own self planning, and forget about their ability dealing with more complex issues like market & social-political manipulation of the public. Far too many people appear to only be capable of 1-step forward planning. Seriously. My career has become a consultant that can see multiple steps forward and when explaining this insight I get everything from angry refusals to daunting obedience, but never a competing insight, only 1 step past their present situation. People are way to quick to enter into short sighted conflict, and then completely ignore their real responsibilities.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I would argue that that - physical activity - is far more important than what you shove in your face." No, it bloody is not. I used to drive a bicycle for 6 - 12 hours ever day while working in the delivery. I also didn't watch what I was eating. I ended up getting fat and with haemorrhoids. So I had to quit cycling. Then I spend some time (years actually) researching and slowly improving my diet. Result? I lost wei…

Sugars are carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are not sugars.

"A carbohydrate (/ˌkɑːrboʊˈhaɪdreɪt/) is a sugar"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#63
post #36

My big issue with this study is it points to a cause. How can they know the issue is social media, and not, say, the climbing atmospheric CO2 or other long-COVID related issues?

The root cause is likely to the surge of dopamine in the brain related to activities like scrolling social media, fast-paced tik-tok videos, porn, etc. This means that the brain is so much addicted to this dopamine that normal level are no longer enough to be functional.

Please see my post above about dopamine and memory. The low dopamine effects memory as well as concentration.

See:

Novelty and Dopaminergic Modulation of Memory Persistence: A Tale of Two Systems

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6352318/

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#64
Since giving up my cell phone entirely over 5 years ago, my productivity, memory, and overall happiness are at the highest levels they have ever been, in my late 30s. I no longer apologize to anyone for this lifestyle choice anymore since the benefits are something everyone deserves, but almost all opt out of today for made up reasons.

I take photos with a pocket mirrorless, and take notes with a notebook. I tell time with a self winding mechanical watch. I pay for things at stores with cash instead of tap to pay. Like a cave man, I know.

I am reachable by internet when I am at my desk, and by landline when I am at home. In an actual emergency dial 911, not me. Otherwise it can probably wait until I am at my desktop or a laptop.

I was already sold on raising kids without smartphones on intuition and lived experience, but study after study point at us having access to all humans, all knowledge, and all entertainment at all times as leading to generally bad mental health and cognitive function outcomes. Our brains were simply not evolved for it.

Whenever I see parents scrolling, and handing a kid a phone as well to pacify them, I wish I could report them for child abuse. I feel like I am watching them be given whiskey or cigarettes, except it is socially acceptable and no one cares.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#65
The memory that is involved is the working memory, which is similar to the CPU cache. The short term is RAM and the long term is the physical storage.

The problem is completely reversible if you stop electronic screen usage and stick to traditional education (nature, friends, books etc)

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#66
post #64

Since giving up my cell phone entirely over 5 years ago, my productivity, memory, and overall happiness are at the highest levels they have ever been, in my late 30s. I no longer apologize to anyone for this lifestyle choice anymore since the benefits are something everyone deserves, but almost all opt out of today for made up reasons. I take photos with a pocket mirrorless, and take notes with a notebook. I tell tim…

This is inspiring. I definitely need to look into getting a landline and reducing my cellphone dependence. We’ve been talking about it lately for our daughter to be able to talk to her friends outside of school. Recently another parent had suggested face time calls which we are strongly against (not so much against video calls but rather against child tablet usage).

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is that the body likes lots of things that are awful for it. For instance drug abuse isn't limited to humans - some bears have gotten addicted to huffing gas to get high. [1] Quite cute if it wasn't so awful! The big issue is that in modern times a whole bunch of things are going wrong - testosterone levels (adjusted for health/bmi/age) are declining, IQ is declining [2], basically every single psychologica…

> So a precautionary principle approach to consumption is to consider what we evolved with and sugar definitely wasn't that. Sugar only really took off in the 19th century. We have evidence that apiculture has been a thing for well over 8,000 years. Our bodies literally love to burn glucose as fuel and we perform better physically (and mentally I assume) when glucose is readily available. We have literally evolved to…

You completely missed the point GP was making. Yes, sugar is an easy fuel source. The point is we have NOT evolved to consume massive amounts every day without breaks (i.e. daily) and without lots of fiber to buffer it.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#68
post #64

Since giving up my cell phone entirely over 5 years ago, my productivity, memory, and overall happiness are at the highest levels they have ever been, in my late 30s. I no longer apologize to anyone for this lifestyle choice anymore since the benefits are something everyone deserves, but almost all opt out of today for made up reasons. I take photos with a pocket mirrorless, and take notes with a notebook. I tell tim…

This is inspiring. I definitely need to look into getting a landline and reducing my cellphone dependence. We’ve been talking about it lately for our daughter to be able to talk to her friends outside of school. Recently another parent had suggested face time calls which we are strongly against (not so much against video calls but rather against child tablet usage).

I started by deleting an app a month until my phone was so boring I kept forgetting it at home, and ultimately abandoned it entirely.

It took a couple years to recalibrate my dopamine reward system gradually until I could enjoy just existing in my own thoughts and brain again while away from the internet, learn to navigate for myself, etc.

For "landlines" I just ported my families cell phone numbers (with their total consent and support) to a voip service, then got VOIP ATA boxes which allows plugging traditional landline phones, including an actual payphone for fun, via ethernet or wifi. Costs a couple dollars a month.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#69
post #7

> Those 4.5 million survey responses were gathered over a decade I'd feel more confident about the results of this research if it didn't entirely depend on self-reported data from a survey. At least in this case it was a phone survey and not just an internet questionnaire posted to social media sites. I'd put more faith in a much smaller sample of young people being professionally evaluated for memory problems. The s…

> internet questionnaire posted to social media sites This has got to have a strong selection effect.

Yes, which is why the parent points out that it wasn't this.

Re: Study finds memory decline surge in young people

#70
post #64

Since giving up my cell phone entirely over 5 years ago, my productivity, memory, and overall happiness are at the highest levels they have ever been, in my late 30s. I no longer apologize to anyone for this lifestyle choice anymore since the benefits are something everyone deserves, but almost all opt out of today for made up reasons. I take photos with a pocket mirrorless, and take notes with a notebook. I tell tim…

So you not have extended family or friends in your daily social setting?

Like this sounds awesome but being offline for 23 hours in the day is unmanageable here, unless you live a very solitary life.

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