Mark McGuiness admits that “Yes, the Internet is Changing Your Brain,” but then does what I wish more writers would do: ask what that means, and what good you can do with the knowledge.

Every day, as you surf the internet, clicking on hyperlinks, opening new tabs and windows, flicking between e-mail, Twitter, Facebook and whatever it was you were reading just now, your patterns of thought are changing. And neuroscientists have amassed solid evidence that when we change our thinking, we change our brain….

But so is just about everything else you do.

I’m skeptical of McGuinness’ comparison of Web browsing to poetic reading, but I agree absolutely with this:

Whether you spend your days reading three volume novels or flittering from Tweet to Tweet will affect the kind of brain you build for yourself. So will your decision to learn tennis, play the violin, memorise the entire London streetmap, start a new company, write a symphony, or spend your days mindlessly crunching spreadsheets and hitting ‘send and receive’ on Outlook Express.

Choose carefully, because you’re choosing your future brain.

Perhaps we’re turning a corner on the assumption that neuroplasticity means we are forever in the thrall of blinky things, and are finally at a point where we can think seriously about how we can have the minds we want, rather than minds that are the by-products of living with devices and being exposed to addictive games.