Fringe Benefits
Look, there has to be some fringe benefits to getting older. And now, research has shown it! How did they come to this conclusion?
By Watching A Movie?
Yes, researchers proved it by having their participants watch a surprising or suspenseful movie. Of course, we don’t know which one they saw.
They monitored the brains of young adults and older adults.
Results
The young brains all “lit up” in the same way at the same time.
The old brains all had unique patterns of brain activity, Their brains “lit up” in different places a different times–they didn’t match their counterparts. According the article in Women’s World, this is a “sign of individualized thinking and better brain development.”
I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT!
Without going through all the trouble of hooking peoples brains up
to wires and gadgets, I could have told you that, merely because it is common sense to me.
Why?
Young people want to fit in. If they are different, then they think something is wrong with them. Once a famous person thinks something is wonderful, then young adults go along with it. Once the iPhone came out–most of the young adults have it, watch the same You Tube videos and listen to the same songs. They all have the same experiences–they are not experiencing life–they are only experiencing what is on their phones. They are too busy texting, checking on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to enjoy the beautiful day outside. They don’t see the trees because their face is in the phone and they can’t take the time to look up. The phone is the new “book of life, and everyone is reading the same “book.”
Older adults, have had a different experience.
Older adults never knew the computer until their children were teenagers or older–let alone the iPhone. We talk to the person we were having dinner with–we aren’t checking on what other people were doing. We played outside as kids–either in the city or the country–different experiences right there. We have seen a lot more of life–both good and bad. We read from real published paper books, not Facebook.
As an example of how older adults see things differently, my friend and I were walking on the beach talking to each other. No cell phones were in our hands. We came across a rock formation. My friends saw it as a mini mountain range, I saw it as a fist of knuckles reaching out of the sand. We saw the same thing, but we didn’t see the same thing. I like this fringe benefit of being older. I want to keep my mind strong and use my imagination often.
A thought to ponder?
I wonder if the research will be different with this generation when they become older adults????