Technology and the human brain

When we engage with the digital world, one question that arises frequently is related to the brain and the mind of newer generations. How are they impacted as they are exposed to new technologies such as AI tools?

In her book “Reader, come home”, Maryanne Wolf explores years of research of the human brain especially related to the digital era. One of her main points of concern, to which she summons society to a watchful vigilance, is to avoid that “the quality of our attention and memory, the perception of beauty and recognition of truth, and the complex decision-making capacities based on all of these atrophy along the way”[1] What may contribute to this atrophy is the fluidity of our attention, as we go from “one stimulus to another… with consequences none could have predicted.”[2] Wolf understands that the bigger impact of technology on the human brain, especially in children, is the ability of deep reading that traditionally would be obtained with physical books. This concept includes processes of connecting background knowledge to new information, the activity of making analogies and drawing inferences, examining truth value, the expansion of empathy and knowledge, and critical analysis.[3] 

The superficial assessment of content generated by how easy we get distracted and the velocity in which we can change course in digital browsing stands in contrast with the ability of deep reading that physical books tend to proportionate. She acknowledges that it is inevitable for us to navigate the digital environment, that is why education and training can help children, and people in general, in order not to lose the deep reading abilities that are important for the development of brain activity.[4]

These insights about deep reading and intentional practice offer a natural entry point for churches to engage with AI thoughtfully. Wolf’s contribution to neurological research and its practical aspects, especially the concept of deep reading, adds an ingredient with which the Churches are familiar. A Lutheran Congregation is used to work with carefully crafted content to be offered, and that careful work should spill over to AI tools. Also, being situated inside the tradition of the historical Churches is an advantage. The congregation already provides spaces and opportunities where communication, teaching and learning are not totally mediated by technology. The in-person activities are an asset that connects to aspects of the deep reading process, such as intentional reading, reflection, and contemplation. This way balance with the digital activities proposed is generated.

Recent research investigated Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.[5] Participants were assigned to three groups: Large Language Model group, Search Engine group, Brain-only group. Each participant used a designated tool (or no tool in the latter) to write an essay. Results shoed that that, among different groups tested, “Brain connectivity systematically scaled down with the amount of external support”.  Their recommendations include “While these tools offer unprecedented opportunities for enhancing learning and information access, their potential impact on cognitive development, critical thinking, and intellectual independence demands a very careful consideration and continued research.”[6] It shows that nothing is set in stone on the digital research, so new discoveries may trump old assumptions, just like the ancient truism about using only a tiny part of our brain[7]. But with the resources already available, the evidence already points to a clear principle: human control over AI tools is fundamental to maximize its opportunities mitigating their risks.

This brings us to a crucial question: given these real challenges, how should the church respond? The challenges presented using AI technology are not insignificant and should always be taken into consideration when one approaches its use. What needs to be underlined, however, is the reality of digital technologies in daily life, the way they have changed our life and the way it becomes almost impossible to avoid them. Maryanne Wolf, as concerned as she is with the brain and its abilities facing a digital era, is very clear in stating:

I have little doubt that the next generation will go beyond us in ways we cannot imagine at this moment. As Alec Ross, the author of The Industries of the Future, wrote, 65 percent of the jobs our present preschoolers will hold in the future haven’t even been invented yet. Their lives will be extended much beyond ours. They may well think very different thoughts. They will need the most sophisticated armamentarium of abilities that humans have ever acquired to date: vastly elaborated deep-reading processes that are shared with and expanded through coding, designing, and programming skills, all of which will be transformed by a future that none of us—from Stewart Brand, Sundar Pichai, Susan Wojcicki, Juan Enriquez, and Steve Gullans to Craig Venter and Jeff Bezos—can now predict.[8]

 

It means that the digital world is not shrinking but will continue to expand in ways we can hardly figure out by now.

What would be some of the opportunities, and consequent benefits, of the use of technology? The list presented by Boche and Hollatz is not exhaustive but offers a good sample of beneficial aspects of the use of digital technology. Psychologically, it may offer us exposition to new ideas and concepts that couldn’t be attained otherwise. It also provides group support in a variety of settings, bridges the gap of communication breakdowns in person and professional relationships. Lastly, it helps us to achieve more exposure to different topics and issues which we might not be aware of without it.[9] 

Another strong argument for an adequate response and use may lie in stimulating what Wolf calls the “biliterate brain,” especially when it comes to reading. Since no one can predict how the digital world is still to expand, it focuses on education to make the best use possible of both worlds, enhancing the benefits of both printed and digital environments.[10] Even though she works mainly from the perspective of education children from zero to five, Wolf’s concept may be broadened to a larger audience. Subsidy for this approach lies in the “Plasticity of the reading brain”.  Beyond sophisticated functions the brain can realize, it is able to,

go beyond its original, biologically endowed functions—like vision and language—to develop totally unknown capacities such as reading and numeracy. To do so, it forms a new set of pathways by connecting and sometimes repurposing aspects of its older and more basic structures.[11]

 

One example is our ability to read, that is not innate, as is speaking. The brain is able to make new connections to assimilate and develop new paths.[12]

Engaging in this environment may sometimes not be perceived as an opportunity but only as a challenge for the Church. That might lead to total avoidance or to excessively critical posture. Here a broader look into the social history of the media and their assimilation is helpful. Burke and Briggs for example, offer an extensive overview of technologies from Gutenberg to the digital era. Their rise, the controversies, the research and the final acceptance and assimilation by society. [13] And I would add -- by the Church as well. The Church and the digital world do not need to be in antagonism. Neither should it be inferred that the Church would be condoning a problematic or even destructive digital culture and behavior by engaging in it. The fact mostly every technology suffered similar criticism before being accepted and adopted by the Church indicates that engagement and discernment could two sides of the same screen as we touch the topic from a Christian perspective.

 In this context, the opportunity should not be missed. To make use of technology is to engage in digital education and literacy and foster conversation, perhaps even helping with the difficult issues. Does it come with challenges and risks? It certainly does. However, the Church is used to challenge and risk, as she dealt with it through the ages,[14], and the same holds true for our age. As Bernard Bull puts it, his readers “should realize the fact that one cannot choose the age in which to live, but one can decide how to respond to that age”. [15] As complex and nuanced as this field is, taking on challenges and opportunities is nothing new to the Church, since across the centuries she had to respond to challenges and advances.[16] Actually, one could make a case for the Church as the leader in technology at some points in history, taking on the risks and benefiting from its opportunities. For example, a Brazilian Administrator and Marketing Strategist Kater Filho offered this view:

“A great publicist said and that the Church has the best logo ever created. It's the cross. The symbol says it all and it's very easy to be reproduced, even by children. It is easily identified in any culture. This is how the Church has taught advertising about making simple logos. The first vehicle from History's mass communication was the bell, at a time in which there was not even a megaphone. The priests ordered to raise tall towers and created codes. Three quick chimes meant that the priest was calling for mass, slow chimes warned the deaths. This communication extended over a radius of several kilometers. The first billboards were the towers of churches. When you enter small towns what you see first is the tower, which turns into a point of reference for the people.”[17]

The Church not only dealt with challenging developments along the way but she at some points was the leader of that process. The same holds valid for the digital world and its challenges and opportunities with which the Church should engage. Local congregations do not need to be afraid of making responsible use of the means available as they see them as a tool useful for their mission. It may happen that she would get so immersed in it that it won’t pay the due attention to her “children” in need of attention – which would call for reflection and re-evaluation of processes. But in so many other times, the learning process will be enhanced, and connections may be generated and solidified. They will engage in a learning process making use of the opportunities that the digital world presents. A process that may connect the Table and the tablet, keeping the distinction between the baptized and bot-tized clear, leading the science of technology to meet the Omniscience of God.

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[1] Wolf, Maryanne. “Reader, Come Home; the Reading Brain in a Digital World.” First Harper paperbacks edition. New York: Harper, 2019, 85-86

[2] Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 70

[3]  Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 35-64

[4]  Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 85-86

[5] Nataliya Kosmyna, Eugene Hauptmann, Ye Tong Yuan, Jessica Situ, Xian-Hao Liao, Ashly Vivian Beresnitzky, Iris Braunstein, and Pattie Maes, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, arXiv:2506.08872v1, June 12, 2025, https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.08872v1. 2

[6] Kosmyna et al., Your Brain on ChatGPT, 142-43

[7] Wolf, "Reader, Come Home”, 20

[8] Wolf, "Reader, Come Home”, 169

[9] Boche,, Ben and Jacob Hollatz, “Faithfully Connected: Integrating Biblical Principles in a Digital World”, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2018, p.145

[10] Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 168-171

[11]  Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 16

[12] Wolf, Maryanne, "Reader, Come Home”, 34

[13] Briggs, Asa, and Peter Burke. A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet. 3rd ed. Malden, MA: Polity, 2009.

[14] The Ecumenical Councils and their times; Reformation challenges; The development of the Enlightenment, and the rise of the Historical Critical Method times are good examples.

[15] Bull, Bernard Dean, “Digitized: Spiritual Implications of Technology”, Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 2018.

[16] Some examples might include: the adaption to the “technology of the Imperial Court” after 380AD; The Reformation times; the challenges of the Enlightenment; the rise of the Historical-Critical Method.

[17] Kater Filho, Antonio M,. “How to sell faith”, Veja Magazine, São Paulo, Abril, p. 36, June 09, 1999, p.36. Speaking of communicational processes, with which the development of an app is intertwined, we usually think in terms of “making communication”. The fact is that we don’t make it, it is happening whether one “makes” it or not. What we try to do is to weigh in the communicational process to cause an inflexion that may influence it in a certain desired direction.