Living online is changing our brains

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Member for

15 years 9 months

Posts: 1,684

Living online is changing our brains - controversy posed by Susan Greenfield professor of synaptic pharmacology at the University of Oxford, and former director of the UK's Royal Institution. She recently spoke at the Hay philosophy festival on the threat technology poses to users' brains.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128236.400-susan-greenfield-living-online-is-changing-our-brains.html

"We need to talk about how the digital world might be changing our brains, says the neuroscientist and former director of the UK's Royal Institution

You think that digital technology is having an impact on our brains. How do you respond to those who say there's no evidence for this?
So what evidence is there?
There is lots of evidence, for example, the recent paper "Microstructure abnormalities in adolescents with internet addiction disorder" http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0020708

Anything else?
There's a recent review by the cognitive scientist Daphne Bavelier in the high-impact journal Neuron, in which she says that this is a given, that the brain will change. She also reviews evidence showing there's a change in violence, distraction and addiction in children, linked to the pervasion of technology. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627310006781

What makes social networks and computer games any different from previous technologies and the fears they aroused?

Digital technologies were vindicated, in terms of our wellbeing, by the Nominet Trust report last month. http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/07/niall-firth-technology-editorh.html
What are your thoughts?"

Original post

Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 6,043

For approx 5 years I was definitely over hooked on forums/web etc but have made a real effort to spend much less time on the net this year.
But I guess it would be more difficult for a youngster to escape since it can be almost their whole life !

Member for

15 years 9 months

Posts: 1,684

I wish some of the regulars would plough in to this as it is a REAL issue

Hi Bazv
I wish some of the regulars (in Gen Disc.) would plough in to this as it is a REAL issue.

The lady who has raised the question is a great (real) person and former head of the famous Royal Institution.

Youngster escaping from the internet, should be part of the school curriculum, university curriculum and work ethics.

Instead we have school, university and work bending over backwards to provide the Internet for unlimited usage. Book,s newspapers, journals - "oh! they are part of the Ark, get shot of them.";)

End result - people not just kids who think that everything revolves around what's on their computer screen.:mad:

And then the UK moan about customer service - it's often because it is delivered through the eyes of a person young or older whose only perspective of the problem/issue is the information shown on the screen (in contrast to engaging with the person, understanding their problem/needs and then resolving it to the best of their ability or moving it to someone who can resolve it.)

Computers and screens are purely decision support in most cases,and it isn't the end all and be all of everything in life.