Effects of technology on our brains and emotions

Published on September 6, 2026 at 1:12 PM

🧠 AI and Your Brain: Is Technology Making Us Smarter or Less Sharp?

AI can write an email, explain quantum physics, plan a holiday, translate a sentence and brainstorm ideas in seconds.

But there is an interesting question behind all this convenience:

If AI does more of our thinking for us, what happens to our brains?

The answer isn't simply “AI is bad” or “AI makes us smarter”. Much depends on how we use it — and what we allow it to replace.

🤖 1. AI can be a brain booster

Used well, AI can reduce the mental energy we spend on repetitive tasks.

Think of it as a cognitive assistant, not a replacement for your brain.

AI can:

  • 💡 generate ideas

  • 🔎 organise information

  • ✍️ give feedback on your writing

  • 🌍 explain unfamiliar subjects

  • 🧩 offer alternative ways of solving a problem

  • 🗣️ help you practise a language

The important question is whether AI helps us do more thinking or simply allows us to do less thinking.

🧠 2. The danger: “Why think when AI can do it?”

Imagine you have to write an article.

You could ask AI:

“Write the article for me.”

Or you could write your own ideas first and ask:

“Challenge my argument. What am I missing?”

These are completely different uses of technology.

Researchers are increasingly interested in cognitive offloading — allowing technology to perform mental tasks for us. A 2025 study protocol, for example, is investigating whether generative AI changes cognitive effort and brain activity during analytical writing. Importantly, it is a protocol for research, not proof that AI damages the brain. (NCBI)

The healthiest approach may therefore be:

Use AI to extend your thinking, not eliminate it.

📚 3. Don't stop reading books

One surprisingly powerful counterbalance to AI is something much older:

a book.

When AI gives you information instantly, reading a book forces you to stay with an idea.

You have to follow an argument, remember earlier information, make connections and tolerate moments when you don't immediately understand something.

And fiction offers something particularly interesting.

When you read a novel, you enter another person's world. You try to understand what a character wants, what they fear and why they behave in a particular way.

In other words, you're practising social cognition.

A 2018 meta-analysis found a small positive effect of fiction reading on social-cognitive performance. A newer 2024 meta-analysis also found small cognitive benefits from fiction reading, particularly in areas such as empathy and mentalising — understanding other people's thoughts and intentions. (PubMed)

A systematic review similarly found that fiction can influence social cognition, particularly when reading is followed by activities such as discussion. (PubMed Central (PMC))

So reading a novel isn't simply escaping reality.

It can be a rehearsal for understanding other people. 📖

❤️ 4. Why socialising is brain exercise

Now consider what happens during a real conversation.

Your friend tells you about a difficult day.

You have to:

👂 listen
🧠 remember details
❤️ recognise emotions
🤔 interpret what they really mean
🗣️ decide how to respond
😄 understand humour or irony
🤝 adjust your behaviour

That's a remarkably complicated cognitive activity.

And unlike an AI conversation, a human relationship has history, vulnerability and consequences.

You know that your friend remembers what you said last week. You notice when their voice sounds different. You understand an inside joke. You sometimes misunderstand each other and have to repair the conversation.

These experiences are part of being socially intelligent.

The U.S. Surgeon General describes social connection as an important contributor to individual and community health, while the WHO has highlighted strong social connections as being associated with better health and longer life. (NCBI)

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 5. We need communities, not just contacts

Having 500 Facebook friends is not necessarily the same as having people you can call when something goes wrong.

Healthy social life is about belonging.

A community might be:

☕ your regular café
📚 a book club
🏃 a running group
🎓 a language class
🎨 an art group
🎮 an online gaming community
🏘️ your neighbourhood
👨‍👩‍👧 your family
👫 a small circle of close friends

The important thing is regular interaction and meaningful relationships, not simply the number of people in your contact list.

The WHO's 2025 Commission on Social Connection described loneliness and social isolation as major global health challenges and called for social connection to be treated as an important part of public health. (World Health Organization)

📱 6. Technology can connect us — if we use it wisely

Technology isn't necessarily the enemy.

In fact, it can make social connection easier.

You can:

  • 📞 video-call a friend who lives abroad

  • 💬 keep in touch with family

  • 🌍 join an international language community

  • 📚 join an online book club

  • 🎮 play with friends who live far away

  • 📅 use an app to organise a real-life meeting

  • ✈️ stay connected when you move to another country

The key question is:

Does technology lead you towards people or away from them?

Imagine two people using AI.

Person A uses a chatbot because talking to people feels uncomfortable. Eventually, AI becomes their main source of conversation.

Person B uses AI to practise English, discover books, find social events and prepare conversation topics — and then goes out and talks to real people.

Same technology.

Completely different social lives.

📖 7. Read alone — then talk about what you read

Here's an even better combination:

Reading + conversation.

Read a novel and then discuss it with someone.

Ask:

“Would you have made the same decision as the main character?”

“Was the character actually selfish, or were they misunderstood?”

“What would you have done?”

Suddenly, a solitary activity becomes a social one.

And this combination may be particularly valuable: research suggests that reading fiction can support social cognition, while discussion can help turn the experience into a more active social process. (PubMed Central (PMC))

A book club is therefore more than a literary activity.

It is reading + memory + interpretation + conversation + disagreement + empathy.

That's a pretty good workout for the brain. 🧠

🌿 8. Build an “offline brain diet”

We already think about what we eat.

Perhaps we should also think about what we feed our minds.

A healthy mental routine could include:

🧠 AI — for exploration and problem-solving
📚 Books — for sustained attention and imagination
🗣️ Conversation — for social and emotional intelligence
🚶 Walking — for movement and time away from screens
🎨 Creative activities — for experimentation and expression
🌳 Time outdoors — for a break from constant digital stimulation
👥 Community — for belonging and mutual support

The goal isn't to eliminate technology.

It's to avoid letting one technology dominate the entire mental ecosystem.

⚖️ 9. The real question isn't “Is AI good or bad?”

AI is a tool.

A hammer can build a house. It can also make you lazy if you use it to avoid learning how to do anything yourself.

The same may be true of AI.

If it helps you explore, question, learn and create, it can be incredibly useful.

If it becomes the first thing you turn to whenever you have to remember, think, write, decide or communicate, you may gradually practise those abilities less.

And if it starts replacing books, friends, hobbies and communities, the problem becomes much bigger than productivity.

🧭 A simple rule

Use AI for assistance.
Use books for depth.
Use conversation for connection.
Use communities for belonging.
And use your own brain for thinking.

Because a healthy mind doesn't just need more information.

It needs attention, curiosity, imagination, relationships and real life. 🌍❤️

📚 References & Further Reading

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