Facebook And Twitter Harming Our Brains?

Not quite your brain on crack cocaine, but it may come close. As David Derbyshire’s coverage points out on research by neuroscientist [and Baroness] Susan Greenfield — Ms. Greenfield would have you believe social networking is “infantilizing” the human brain.

She was quoted by David Derbyshire as saying,

My fear is that these technologies [i.e. Facebook or Twitter] are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.

And she goes on to say,

I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf.

This is a substantial movement in the wrong direction for research and analysis on social networking and how it affects the brain. Very unfortunate for Ms. Greenfield to take this approach.

Humans adapt and progress in evolutionary fashion. The introduction of social networking to the internet and our lives is an enriching and fulfilling step in our progress as a social animal – not a move backwards and surely not something to cause alarm about.

We can posit here that the possible drawbacks in being online for more time than we should are similar to the drawbacks in doing just about anything in excess — kids playing video games, adults consuming liquor and so on.

Using the web in moderation is the quickest way to mute Ms. Greenfield’s research.

Rather than slamming our socializing ways on the web, this type of research could certainly better serve us if it uncovered solutions in how to moderate our behavior online.