Will Facebook 'infantilize' the human mind? | The Toybox | ZDNet.com

Description

February 24th, 2009

Will Facebook 'infantilize' the human mind?

Social network sites risk infantilizing the 21st century mind , leaving it characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist profiled in the Guardian (UK)

A professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford says there are broad cultural and psychological effect of on-screen friendships via Facebook, Bebo and Twitter.

According to Susan Greenfield , who spoke to the House of Lords, the experiences of children on social networking sites “are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilized, characterized by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathize and a shaky sense of identity.”

Or as is colloquially but inaccurately called on these shores, the “ADD effect.”

“If the young brain is exposed from the outset to a world of fast action and reaction, of instant new screen images flashing up with the press of a key, such rapid interchange might accustom the brain to operate over such timescales. Perhaps when in the real world such responses are not immediately forthcoming, we will see such behaviours and call them attention-deficit disorder.

“It might be helpful to investigate whether the near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies over the last decade might in some way be linked to the threefold increase over this period in prescriptions for methylphenidate, the drug prescribed for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.”

Greenfield also warned against “thrill of the moment” -type activity and the disregard for long-term consequence, which “can be compared with the thrill of compulsive gambling or compulsive eating,” and such immediate reward is “linked to similar chemical systems in the brain that may also play a part in drug addiction.”

The Guardian ...

Original URL

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=1677

http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=1677