When Brains Can’t Keep Up: Evolution, Technology, and Neurodivergence
The human brain is pretty amazing. It manages so much for us—from the automatic processes that keep us breathing and moving, to the higher-level cognitive skills that let us plan, problem-solve, and connect.
But here’s the thing: our brains are also a little outdated. They haven’t evolved nearly as fast as the world around us. We’re still wired for survival, constantly monitoring for threats (think caveman days of tigers and bears) rather than the buzz of modern life (i.e., iPhones, laptops, and Starbucks apps).
The wiring that once helped us survive life-or-death threats worked beautifully in the past—but in today’s world, it often just adds to our overwhelm. Great for evading saber-toothed tigers, not so great for managing endless emails, navigating toddler tantrums, and carrying the weight of the mental overload.
Survival Wiring: Fight, Flight, or Freeze
At the core of our brain’s survival system is the fight / flight / freeze response. Thousands of years ago, encountering a predator meant you needed to quickly decide: fight it, run away, or freeze and hope the danger passes. That response is still hard-wired into our nervous system.
- The amygdala sounds an alarm when it perceives threat.
- The sympathetic nervous system gears us up to act.
- If action feels impossible, the body may freeze or shut down.
These wiring patterns made sense in ancestral environments. Today, though, our “predators” often look like sensory overload, social pressures, an endless stream of notifications, or the constant pressure of juggling work and family demands. Yet our bodies still react as if there is life-or-death danger.
The Information Flood: What Our Brains Take In
One of the most striking findings in recent neuroscience is how much raw data our brains are exposed to every moment. Think about this: every second, your brain is taking in about one billion pieces of information through your five senses (vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste). One billion! But here’s the kicker: only about ten tiny bits of that information make it into your conscious awareness.
It’s like trying to drink from a firehose with a straw. Most of what your body notices never even makes it to your conscious mind—it gets filtered, sorted, and tucked away so you can focus on whatever seems most important in the moment. That constant firehose of input doesn’t just disappear—it weighs on the nervous system, leaving us prone to anxiety, fatigue, and overwhelm.
The Mismatch Between Brains and Modern Life
Because our brains are wired first and foremost for survival, they do what they do best: filter. When faced with overwhelming amounts of input, the system prioritizes what seems most relevant to safety, reward, or threat. That filtering is essential—but it can also mean overreaction, exhaustion, or feeling “scattered” when so much is tugging for attention.
Modern technology has exacerbated this. Constant notifications, social media, multitasking, screens, ambient noise, and the pull to always be connected through our devices—these aren’t threats in the traditional sense, but they activate many parts of the threat / survival circuitry. We’re constantly overrun with stimuli our ancestors never had to process.
ADHD, Neurodivergence, and Adaptation
I believe many traits we label as ADHD, sensory processing differences, or other forms of neurodivergence are in part responses to this mismatch. In other words, they are adaptations—ways that brains try to keep up with rapid change and sensory overload.
- A brain that can rapidly shift attention, hyper-focus on novel stimuli, or respond with high sensitivity may have advantages in chaotic or fast-changing environments.
- What looks like distractibility might be scanning for important changes; what looks like overstimulation may be high sensitivity to nuance.
When society and our environments expect everyone to conform to a narrow bandwidth of attention, filtered sensory tolerance, steady pace, it can pathologize what are in fact different, but potentially adaptive, wiring.
Finding Balance in a Fast World
Since our brains aren’t evolving at the speed of our technology (or social structures), we need to build practices and environments that help bridge the gap.
- Regulate and ground: practice mindfulness, slow your breathing, and spend time in nature to calm the fight/flight/freeze system.
- Limit sensory overload: set digital boundaries, cut back on multitasking, and simplify your environment.
- Honor neurodivergent strengths: shift from asking “What’s wrong with this brain?” to “What are its strengths, and how can we support them?”
Moving Forward with Compassion
When we understand that our brains are doing their best—to filter, survive, and adapt—we can create space for compassion instead of self-criticism. Rather than saying, “I’m failing,” we can remind ourselves, “I’m working with wiring not built for the pace of today’s world.”
By noticing how much our senses are taking in, honoring neurodivergence as part of the human spectrum, and intentionally choosing rest, regulation, and supportive environments, we move closer to flourishing—not just surviving. The mismatch between our brains and our modern world isn’t a personal flaw; it’s part of being human right now. Every mindful breath, every boundary with technology, every moment of honoring our strengths is a reminder that we can thrive here and now—even if evolution is taking its time to catch up.
