While searching for something entirely different I came across this news article from February of this year which I had not previously seen. Perhaps it was big news at the time -- I was in the blur of new motherhood that month.
Anyway, a professor at Oxford claims that social networking sites may actually alter the brain (and attention span) of youth who grow up with heavy exposure while still developing.
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didn't they say this about tv when we were growing up? :)
ReplyDeleteLady Greenfield's comment to the House of Lords was very interesting:
ReplyDeleteShe said that children's experiences on social networking sites "are devoid of cohesive narrative and long-term significance. As a consequence, the mid-21st century mind might almost be infantilised, characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity".
Gina's right, they said the same thing about TV and, if I recall correctly, the same comments were made about video games, too.
I can't believe I didn't see this before, but perhaps we should introduce the Oxford professor to the researchers at MIT (see the blog post just before this one).
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderfully dichotomous academic viewpoints! I expect competing entries on Wikipedia any day now. :)