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In late 2024 and early 2025 I started developing a new keynote talk on the impacts of Technology On The Brain. The first few outings have been extremely well received so I thought I’d dedicate this month’s blog to some of the headline messages that I deliver to audiences from many different industries.
“The speaker was excellent. He was very engaging and I felt he was interactive with the audience keeping the topic current and helping to relate to our day to day activities which impacted on our performance at work.”
Special Crime and Counter-Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service event attendee
The talk is topped and tailed with some Brain Optimisation Principles (or BOPs) which are easy to follow and relatively effortless to implement tips on how to get more out of our brains every day.
I then delve into the nuts and bolts of neuroplasticity to help the audience understand that, even in adulthood, the human brain is constantly changing in response to interactions with the environment.
And I point out that it doesn’t matter whether that environment is physical or digital – whatever we do regularly, intensively and over long periods of time, whether interacting with screens or the real world has the potential to alter our cognitive capacities and even change the fabric of our brain.
“This was an excellent and interesting presentation. I made notes and have ordered the book !!!”
Special Crime and Counter-Terrorism Division of the Crown Prosecution Service event attendee
Having established the fundamental evidence explaining the mechanisms by which intensive screen use is changing our brains I move onto to outlining some of the headlines from the steadily expanding evidence base regarding how smartphone use is changing neural networks in individuals and in society at large.
Mere Presence / Just the Ping of a Smartphone
The next part of the talk delves into specifics of how smartphone overuse can derail our attention and meddle with our capacity to sustain focus for long periods of time. Practical tips on how to set up your work space to minimise these drawbacks can be applied immediately and with great effect.
“Really interesting on the issues relating to tech and social media. Very clear presentation, without getting into jargon.”
CPS Special Crime and Counter-Terrorism Division event attendee
Heavy Media Multitasking
Back in 2009 the first evidence that regularly using different types of media simultaneously could lead to cognitive penalties in simple visual tasks. Fast forward to 2025 and the list of negative impacts on cognition and mental health has grown to encompass problems with distraction, sustained attention, long term memory, working memory, fluid intelligence, depression, social anxiety and neuroticism.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI)
I end with some anecdotes early insights into what overuse of genAI tools is doing to our day to day cognitive capacities. Worryingly it appears to have a negative impact on critical thinking skills, which is especially daunting given that these are the very skills that
If you or your team will be using generative AI regularly and intensely over the next few months then it will change your brain, of that there is no doubt. Whether those changes are for the better or the worse is entirely dependent on how you use it and my talk concludes with some rules of thumb that help attendees gain all the benefits of these revolutionary tools without succumbing to the many pitfalls along the way.
“I enjoyed this speaker, he was engaging and had some genuinely useful insights that anyone could apply to their daily life. Dr Lewis had a pleasant demeanour and was clearly highly knowledgeable and passionate about his work, which kept the presentation focused and interesting.”
CPS Special Crime and Counter-Terrorism Division event attendee.
To book me to give my Tech On The Brain keynote talk at your event, please drop me a line here, or contact my agent. In addition to monthly brain blogs I’m also active on the social media platform formally known as Twitter (www.x.com/drjacklewis), Instagram (www.instagram.com/drjacklewis_neuro) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/drjacklewis)
