Smartphone Apps: Brain Mush or IQ Booster?
Leslie Philp
Phone Apps: Rotting the brain or raising IQ’s
With modern technology in this day and age there are new programs hitting the market daily, especially with iPhones, iPads, and smartphones. Many new editions to technology have been able to help scientists learn the inner-workings of the brain; however some technology that has been created is not useful to the general public such as Facebook and YouTube apps.
For the iPad, there are games designed specifically to engage the brain such as “Brain Fit” which involves bright colors for visual stimulation as well as to create different reactions that excite, depress, calm, and increase appetite within the body.
On the topic of electronics in the future, Analies Maisonet, fine arts major, feels that brain stimulation may or may not go down.
“The fact that we can pretty much look up anything which means we don’t have to make any interaction with anybody. So, that kind of brings it down a bit. But no as in we can’t look up everything … pretty much everything we need to know is on the Internet,” she said.
Maisonet also feels that the more technology that is added to phones and computers is going to detach humans from one another.
” ‘Angry Birds’ is fun and it kills a lot of time, but it’s pretty useless in general,” Maisonet said on the topic of new phone apps.
iPhone has recently seen the release of a number of apps intended to test one’s IQ. The app called “IQ-Test” challenges the reader to answer various questions in a limited amount of time. Another app released was “IQ Boost” tested to improve short-term memory and fluid intelligence.
Other popular games to download and try out are “Brain Fitness Pro,” “Speed Brain,” “Brain Shaper,” “A-Z Brain Teasers,” and “Mind Freak: Digital Drugs.”
Unlike Maisonet, Andrew Kuhn, business sustainability major, thinks apps are useful tools for GPS systems, researching restaurants, and are a source of entertainment.
Kuhn also feels that the more information the human brain receives, the smarter the population becomes.
“If anything (new technology) will lower our attention span because the amount of information that we receive daily is far more what we’re used to. So, the less information we get the less our brain works,” Kuhn said.
When it comes to the brain and IQ’s, Taylor Blakesley, nursing major, believes the world will continue to gain more knowledge because “it takes smart people to make it.”
