Menggunakan fitur pencarian di internet membantu dewasa dan orang berusia lanjut untuk mempertahankan daya ingat agar tetap berada pada kondisi optimal, menurut ilmuwan AS baru-baru ini. Ilmuwan di University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) melakukan studi ini dengan merekam aktivitas otak melalui functional magnetic resonance imaging scan melihat bahwa "orang-orang yang sering melakukan pencarian di internet menggunakan lebih banyak aktivitas otak sewaktu mereka mencari," kata Dr. Gary Small, pakar penuaan UCLA dalam sebuah wawancara telepon, "menegaskan bahwa pencarian di internet dapat melatih otak dan menjaga otak agar tetap aktif dan sehat."

Banyak studi yang mengatakan bahwa permainan asah otak seperti puzzle dapat mempertahankan fungsi otak, namun belum banyak yang mempelajari dampak penggunaan internet terhadap daya ingat. Small mengatakan bahwa "ini adalah pertama kalinya seseorang melakukan pindai otak saat obyek sedang melakukan pencarian di internet."

Studi dilakukan pada 24 orang yang berusia 55 sampai 76 tahun. Separuh dari mereka sudah sering melakukan pencarian di internet, sementara separuhnya lagi belum memiliki pengalaman mencari. Kedua kelompok kemudian diminta melakukan pencarian internet dan membaca buku sementara aktivitas otak mereka diawasi.

"Kami menemukan bahwa aktivitas membaca buku mengaktifkan visual kortex — bagian dari otak yang mengontrol bahasa. Pada pencarian internet, aktivitas yang dilakukan jauh lebih banyak, namun hal ini hanya berlaku bagi kelompok yang biasa menggunakan internet," jelas Small.

Small mengatakan bahwa orang yang terbiasa menggunakan internet dapat memicu tingkat aktivitas otak yang jauh lebih dalam. Pada otak yang sudah menua, pengurangan aktivitas sel dapat berdampak negatif pada fungsi kognitif. Aktivitas otak yang lebih dapat mempertahankan kesehatan otak dan kemampuan berpikir.

Small berpendapat bahwa mempelajari cara melakukan pencarian di internet merupakan salah satu aktivitas tersebut. "Mungkin kita dapat mengajarkan trik internet baru pada otak yang sudah tua," tutur Small.

(Washington Post)

After quite a while learning about IT, I considered that this is one of the toughest jobs I ever know. I never thought that working in IT could give you rough time, of course this is just my personal assumption, but I have good reasons for that. This is few things that can make working in IT tortuous at times.

• You get a lot of fingers pointed at you. When error messages pop up and system outages occur, people quickly start pointing fingers at IT and the pressure is intense to get things fixed quickly to keep users from losing productivity. That’s part of the job and you have to always be prepared for it and they really don’t care about your explanation, you have to fixed their problem. In fact, some IT pros even get an adrenaline rush from this type of high-pressure stakes. The problem is that IT pros hear loud and clear when things aren’t working, but they rarely get much appreciation during the other 99% of the time when systems are running smoothly.
• People assume you’re an expert in all things tech. When you’re an IT worker, non-techies  co-workers tend to assume that you know everything about all tech subjects. For example, if you’re a help desk technician you get questions about how to deal with spam and spyware on an employee’s machine. There are obviously tactful ways to handle this, but me, myself can’t help but get a little frustrated by this, or even feeling a little inadequate. Worse, because you’re an IT-guy, a lot of your co-workers will come to you for advice on buying PCs, digital cameras, and TVs. Some will even ask you to fix their PC for free or help troubleshoot a problem with their cable modem.
• You have to continually re-train, on your own dime. I think it’s fair for me to say that no profession on earth is changing faster than the IT field right now and that’s not likely to change any time soon. The pace of development and innovation in hardware and software products is staggering. As a result, the knowledge that it takes just to keep your current job is always growing and moving, and IT pros have to take responsibility for their continuing education or risk having their skills and knowledge become obsolete within a few short time. This is a constant struggle especially for someone that has no IT background like my self .

Well, I guess that’s all the things that you need to now about taking career as an IT-guy. Anyway instead of give up and walk away, I think, I’ll take may chance and deal with it, who knows someday…….