Auslagerung des Denkens auf Maschinen schadet dem Gehirn
Published as "Digitale Demenz" reached German bestseller lists, this interview with marketing trade publication absatzwirtschaft has Spitzer explaining his book's argument to a business audience: that offloading everyday cognitive tasks — navigation, memorization, spelling — onto devices is linked, in his view, to weaker memory formation, comparing disused brain regions to muscles that atrophy without exercise. He cited a figure from Germany's federal drug-policy commissioner that at the time classified roughly 3–4% of young people as internet- or computer-dependent, with about 250,000 classified as dependent and 1.4 million as at elevated risk, and referenced a Stanford study he said found 8-to-12-year-old girls spending far more daily time online than in face-to-face contact with friends. TechKids Foundation summarizes his claims here in our own words as his stated position from this interview, not as independently verified TechKids findings.
Spitzer cited Germany's federal drug-policy commissioner as classifying about 3–4% of young people as internet- or computer-dependent at the time, with roughly 250,000 classified as dependent and about 1.4 million as at elevated risk.
Spitzer referenced a Stanford study he said found 8-to-12-year-old girls spent an average of about seven hours a day online, compared with about two hours of in-person contact with friends, on average.
"Auslagerung des Denkens auf Maschinen schadet dem Gehirn." Interview with Manfred Spitzer. absatzwirtschaft, August 20, 2012.