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by Bob Lloyd

Created on: January 06, 2010

Our minds grow to the extent that we interact with the world and other people, and expose ourselves to new ideas, things, and events.  For previous generations, it took a lot of time and money to be able to undertake the Grand Tour, to visit far off places and experience different cultures.  It took monied leisure to be able to study and learn.  For those needing to earn a living, leisure time was scarce and so was money.  The opportunity to expand one's mind was rare.

Although technology lessened the physical burdens of productive activity, until recently only a small sector of society had the opportunity to engage in activities that broadened their minds.  That changed fundamentally with the growth of information technology.  Although the media such as print, radio and television improved the communication of ideas, it was distinctly one way, with little or no opportunity for involvement.  People simply received whatever was broadcast.

But in recent years with the advent of the internet, knowledge has been democratised and it is now possible to be well-informed about any subject you choose without having to spend time and money on a course of study.  Access to news from any country in any language is available at a click, and news aggregators allow us to follow stories with little or no effort.  We can study any subject through the online availability of educational resources, and we can make use of the experience of millions of others in informing ourselves at a time convenient to us.

But more than ever, the internet encourages involvement and participation in the process of forming our own minds and personalities.  Like never before, we can encounter a wide range of opinions and beliefs, cultures and backgrounds from all over the world.  We can test opinion, examine our own attitudes and beliefs, engage with and listen to others who would otherwise have been invisible to us.  And we can make our own views heard giving us an unprecedented opportunity to express ourselves through a variety of media.

In the isolation of our own communities, whether on the scale of village or country, we can often settle for accepted prejudices without ever challenging those ideas.  We have a comfortable mental space in which to live and we tend to avoid challenges to our values.  But by interacting, we open our minds to new ideas which will not be available in our community.  We can understand the views of a Palestinian, a Georgian, a Tasmanian, or listen to someone from New Orleans talking about the flood.  We can experience, and therefore grow our minds, like never before.

But it goes much further than that.  We can create our very own personas online.  We can hide behind an avatar and present whatever personality we prefer, letting others see just the side of us that we want to be visible.  In a very real sense, people can experiment with their own personality in a safe environment in virtual worlds, on forums and chat rooms and in doing so, learn more about the emotions and reactions of themselves and others.  Of course there are risks, especially for younger people, but the potential to understand our own reactions is greatly enhanced.

Even the nature of our communication changes as we adopt text-speak, emoticons, use services like Twitter, and drop messages into the ether for some ever present viewers to pick up.  The changes in temporality affect how we speak.  Posting a message is like speaking with a time delay and the online presence becomes an important apect of the physical presence, particularly for young people.  Being connected now influences the extent and nature of communication with friends and family.

By virtue of the increased cultural exchanges, new ideas will cross-fertilise our societies breaking down the insular nature of many countries.  Our culture is enriched and so too are our abilities to deal with a broader range of values and beliefs, since isolation is the friend of prejudice.  The consequence is a greater tolerance and open-mindedness which breaks down irrational suspicion between people of different countries making it easier to learn to relate to other cultures.

But there is even more of benefit, from a much more prosaic source.  Just the very action of using technology challenges us.  We need to learn new ways of interacting with devices, from the frantic thumbing of text messaging, to the touch and drag of the iPhone, to the use of Skype and webcams, messaging systems, up to using interfaces to social networking sites such as FaceBook and YouTube.  At every step of the way, we are expanding our mental capabilities, increasing even our physical dexterity,  studying how the new system works, making and testing our predictions, learning new details and acquiring new skills.  Just as babies learn by experimenting with their environment, we are now immersed in a rich and changing environment full of learning possibilities.

Of course some will find such constant learning a nuisance, and there is always redundancy in technical knowledge.  How many people can remember how to change a golf-ball on a golf-ball typewriter?  But that doesn't matter because the mental value is in the problem solving, the acquiring of new analytical skills.  And as we become more adept at dealing with changing systems, new interfaces, we become more adaptable in problem-solving generally.

We start to understand systems thinking, causes and effects, how systems are managed and maintained.  We become technically more savvy and can apply our rational reasoning to new areas.  Out capabilities in problem solving are enhanced but so too is our confidence in being able to deal with unexpected events.  We start to pay more attention to detail, get more our of our experiences, relate it more to wider values.

Of course, there are some risks.  We've all met the folks who are obsessed with gadgets and almost never speak to real physical people.  But for the overwhelming majority of us, our opportunities are greatly enhanced with opportunities for personal growth never seen before.

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