How does the Internet Exploit Your Brain to Keep You Away from Learning?

Note: This article is from author Tyler Tervooren, in which he talks about how the Internet can exploit your brain to keep you away from learning, and how to fix it in 10 minutes.

The first place I went to was the Internet, of course, but I found hundreds of lessons, some were simple and the other were complex, and I asked myself over and over, "Which one of them should I follow? Can I really do that?" It seems more complicated now.

I spent a whole day just making sure I was “doing it right”—much longer than I’d planned. Later I realized that this was happening all the time, and I started talking to friends who had the same problem, that is any simple problem that can be solved with intuition, little experience, and making mistakes, but it becomes very complex just by searching for solutions on the Internet. To prove my point of view, I recorded the search results for some different topics that I find interesting:

1. How to become an entrepreneur: 254 million results in 48 seconds.
2. How to play golf: 775 million.
3. How to be a parent: 909 million.     
4. How to change careers: 1.8B.
5. How to overcome exhaustion: 2.4 million results.

How did we raise children before there were 909 million different web pages to tell us how to do it? When you’re trying something new, your brain wants perfect information to be sure it’s done properly. However, there are many ways to solve the same problem, and looking for help from a great source like the internet reveals most of them, and suddenly you feel fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Although the Internet is amazing, your brain is not very good at dealing with a large amount of conflicting information, at least not normally. It gets confused, and fortunately some changes to how you look for information will fix this problem and take back all the time you spent doubting yourself. If you have difficulty starting a new project or feel overwhelmed by how much you need to learn, keep reading.

How do we learn things?

In the 1960s, Malcolm Knowles, a doctor, and education pioneered research on how adults learn, and he discovered some surprising things about what motivates us to learn. However, perhaps unsurprisingly, he found that the most effective teaching tool was a practical approach, and regardless of the nature of the learner you can probably agree that when you learn something new and try to solve a difficult problem, it works once you start with the practical application. Complex concepts make sense, and solving difficult problems becomes easier as you begin to see how they fit into the way you live.

How does the Internet hinder learning?

If I wanted to save a lot of time fixing my car I would probably avoid looking at a comprehensive guide from the beginning and get to work. If I got to a point where I didn't understand what I was doing, I could start looking for more experiments, but instead, my mind wanted to feel safe and not at risk, and wanted to be sure that I would succeed from the start even though the guarantee of success on the first try is elusive at best. So, I headed to the search for the perfect solution, as the Internet provides thousands of results which leads me to more confusion.

This is how the Internet - the world's largest source of knowledge –hinders the learning process, exploiting your desire for it, so you are looking for the perfect solution because you are not sure of your abilities and do not want to expose yourself to risk, which leads you to a huge amount of information, and much of it conflicts with the rest, and then you stop working due to indecision, preventing you from working.

You can change this by just making small adjustments to how you search for information and solve problems, and the Internet can become a valuable tool that accelerates the learning process. Here's what to do:

How to fix the learning problem in the next 10 minutes?

Now you know the two mistakes you're facing:

• The brain’s desire for perfect information.
• The brain’s lack of action when faced with overwhelming information.

Here's what you can do to fix these mistakes and speed up the learning process. Of course, the best way to do that is through practicality, so get ready to do some work.

1. Thinking about something you're postponing:

Maybe you need to fix something but don’t know how. Maybe you want to start a new project or learn to play an instrument. Write down what you want to do.

2. Figure out the first step to getting started:

You may know the first step, or you may be something new to look for. If you need to, do not look past the first page of the results, and do not do more than 5 different searches to find the information you need; This information must be sufficient to guide you to your first step.

3. Shut down your computer (but not before reading the rest of this article):

The next action will be to stay away from the computer and use your brain without the help of the Internet. Think about this first action you will take, and create a plan for how to start it in less than 10 minutes, as this will be changed depending on the goal you are trying to accomplish.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each stage of the learning process:

When you get to a point where you don’t know what to do next, search online again for an answer. The point of this process is to give your brain room for action. By determining what you need to start, you will get the perfect information you need related to the task you are doing, and by taking action once you have the information you need, you will prevent yourself from searching for many answers that will only lead to confusion and doubt.

Remember that you may have 800 million results in your research, but how many do you really need to start working on versus the number of results you need to feel safe to eliminate suspicion?

While repeating these steps, you will build confidence in your ability to solve problems. This will help you avoid confusion when something similar appears in the future.

In Conclusion:

The Internet is one of the greatest tools ever invented to aid and improve our lives, but it still has some dangerous side effects that can exploit imperfections in your brain that keep you from learning and acting. Thankfully, you understand the problem now.