Is FaceBook Changing My Brain ?
71Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, warns us ( February 2009) that the instant feedback and impersonal communication offered by social networking sites could drive human brains and behaviour in negative directions. This is dangerous for our mental and social health and 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" according to Greenfield. Even if there is evidence that FaceBook is somehow changing our brains in a bad way - would we stop using social networking?
Is our social networking activity, where we control how people see us and feed them only what we want them to know about us, turning us into a community of narcissists ? Are our online dialogues really meaningful? Is real conversation going to be replaced in time by these cleaned-up and easy screen dialogues? The increasing volume of social networking on a daily basis, especially for children, will result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations.
We are evolving. Darwinian pressure is being applied by information technology and, as in all evolutionary moves over the millennia, will select some characteristics and weed out others.
Books by Professor Susan Greenfield
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Tomorrow's People: How 21st-Century Technology is Changing the Way We Think and Feel
Acclaimed neuroscientist Susan Greenfield shows that, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we are standing on the brink of a mind makeover more cataclysmic than anything in our history. In a future virtual realm of dreams and shadows the notion of our individual self may be obliterated entirely. The question is not whether it will happen but when.
Price: $9.92
List Price: $16.50 |
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ID: The Quest for Identity in the 21st Century
What effect do video games have on your children's minds? How much private information do governments and big companies know about you? This book explores what it means to be human in a world of rapid change, a passionately argued wake-up call and an inspiring challenge to embrace creativity and forge our own identities.
Price: $8.56
List Price: $14.73 |
Evolution per se is neither good nor bad. It is the proverbial "blind watchmaker" in that it has no moral or teleological intent. What we need to ask ourselves is do we value the traits that are disappearing from human consciousness? These qualities will be lost forever in future generations. I have no opinion yet as to whether they are good or bad – evolution seems to have worked so far. But I wonder about things like ego formation, non-virtual social interaction and attention span.
Why do I find these three areas of importance ?
EGO : Well, we all need a healthy ego to develope ambition and to seek achievement. These things are fundamental – but become less so if we blog, or twitter or update about the small details of our lives, our habits and tastes, our momentary passing thoughts. When such snatched bits of writing are used to enhance us in the eyes of our virtual ‘followers’ and friends and to amuse those of our real friends who we also know virtually – this makes an individual feel wittier, more attractive, more successful in their virtual world, but may have the effect of inhibiting personal development and ambition in their real world.
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What in the World Are Your Kids Doing Online?: How to Understand the Electronic World Your Children Live In
Forget what you think you know about online communications - even your older teenage kids aren't as technologically savvy as their younger siblings.
Price: $4.21
List Price: $14.00 |
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Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online
Totally Wired is both an awakening and a comfort for adults who feel lost in the infinite alleys of cyberspace.
Price: $5.58
List Price: $13.95 |
REAL WORLD social contact : Virtual social interaction is much easier than face-to-face contact. If you are physically present with somebody and communicating with them you have to actually pay attention to them. There’s no just clicking away from them for a few minutes to check email or whatever. You need to be aware of changes in their voice and body language because these are as important as the words that they are saying in interpreting what they are communicating. You notice the more subtle communication markers such as a blush, sweating and eye movements. These interpretative skills of face to face social interaction are important cognitive skills and are directly related to mental agility. The danger of taking part in a lot of virtual interaction is that these cognitive skills are slowly degrading right now and may be lost altogether at some point in generations to come. This is a serious matter and will have serious consequences for our mental acuity and the quality of our relationships. These consequences may already be in situ for many people. How would we know?
ATTENTION SPAN : The effect of life in a world of virtual communication and social interaction cannot but effect the moral and intellectual health of human beings. Already teachers are noticing that children find sustained concentration harder than children of only half a generation ago. Children learn to read as well as ever – in fact may learn to read quicker because of the use of mobile phones and the internet – but their desire and ability to master complicated skills or to make it through the great books are vanishing. This is a profoundly disturbing side effect of the digital revolution. The ability to develope sustained concentration is vital for an individual to master science, art, or any skill it is needed to acquire wisdom. How can a young person acquire wisdom, which can only be found in the depths of great literary works, if they cannot finish reading, thinking about and discussing a work by Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Dickens or Jane Austen?
Finally, and the sentiment expressed here echoes mine when I considered the theme of this hub, one of Professor Greenfield’s researchers said : "In a world where private thoughts and feelings are posted on the Internet for all to see, it's hard to see where ourselves finish and the outside world begins." This is chilling. The boundary between the ‘I’ of the ego and the outside world was crucial to our development thus far on the evolutionary timeline. It was a vital component in the western revolution in the sciences, the arts and philosophy. If we allow the precious boundary between public and private to be slowly erased by our social networking on the internet then we can reasonably expect that such a distinction will seem quaint and outdated in a few years time.
Here’s a thought – the great intellectual progress that mankind has made because of science, art and philosophy has resulted in, among other things, the internet.The internet is fantastic – a great tool – I’m a fan. But isn’t it ironic that this crowning intellectual achievement may also be the thing that erodes intellect?
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like Elena, I'm intrigued by the implications here. What I've been wondering though, in my interactions with students, is whether the brain has been trained to look at moving images so much (television, movies, computer games, etc) that staring at a page in a book must seem to many kids like staring at a painting, and just as pointless.
What this means in terms of interaction with others is however even more disturbing. Time will tell. Don Quijote's problem was that he read too many books and thought the world should be more like the concepts created in his imagination. Indeed, books have long been blamed for folk's using the imagination as a landscape instead of the real world. I doubt we can quell individuality and imagination with computers and instant messaging any more than we could with, say, the telephone. Hope I'm right, though. . . .
Well done!
I really don't see a problem, but I do not hold a PHD in anything either. Remember what our elders said about rock and roll? well, maybe they were right on some points LOL
"...the brain has been trained to look at moving images so much (television, movies, computer games, etc) that staring at a page in a book must seem to many kids like staring at a painting..."
I've never thought about it like that, Teresa.
I echo Proud Mom with that thought. Of course, there is nothing wrong with staring at a painting. Ha! I realize the intent of that statement.
I just read in one of my nursing magazines that a hospital had a short planned computer outage. They knew of this in advance so had plenty of time to furnish everyone with paper charts, etc. The nurse that wrote the article related the fact that she truly enjoyed being able to spend MORE TIME with the patients! Labs sent up the results every hour...so nothing much (except stat reports) was missing. Going back to the old ways turned out to be a blessing...if for even that short period of time.
Very thought provoking hub! Thanks!
I think its only a matter of time before we evolve into those disembodied brains that you see in all the sci-fi movies. Not a very long amount of time either.
i think the whole electonic screen world has got to change us in some ways...while facebook is great to keep people in cantact -my 23 year old son talks with kids he was in kindergarden with...the electronic screen can become an object of obsession, it does something weird with your ability to focus, sheesh , I can feel it now
You could be on to something. Human behavior and evolution developes over a long period of time. In order to test this theory scientifically there would have to be many studies with all groups of people and of all ages and personality types and from different ethnic,social and income type enviroments.etc to develope any facts. I do agree that are society is becoming less patient nad more focused on what is at hand "right now." We are reading less newspapers and books becuase of the internet and miore so read snippets and short paragraphs instead of long articles and stories. The internet has trained our mind to think faster along with all the new gadgets and technology that is availabe.Cell phones,mp3 players,notebooks etc. It isnt a bad thing though in my opinion.We are evolving more technologicaly and multitasking much more in our daily lives and jobs. It is more difficult at times and can be quite cumbersome. Socially though, it can pose a problem if we aren't still talking physically to people in person and on the phone and getting outside our pc desk rhelm. Communication with people by speaking and face to face contact must always be essential to our survival as humans. This is a great hub that makes you sit back and think about things and to remember that we are not robots we are humans and social interactions between peopleoutside the computer is a must .
Thanks for your comments guys - it is fascinating - and disturbing (for me) to think that I need to work very hard at getting the balance right between my online and offline lives.
You know people worried about the social implication of the telephone too - anyone could ring you up - and you might not be even properly introduced! I agree we are going thru a revolution and I find it really exciting - I am a classic at 47 I am trying to make living doing something that wasn't invented when I was at school :-)
I read something recently with reference to facebook- apparently human's are designed to only relate to around 150 people - thats the size of a typical village and the number of faces we naturally remember.
True I can understand a lot of kids not wanting to read War and Peace - but on the other hand I had imaginery friends well into my 20s because no one else I knew shared my passion for space craft and Star Trek - I'd love to have had a facebook group then!
hi Lissie - thanks for reading and commenting and for replying to my email.
hey - I'm 51 and I still have imaginary friends - now, thee's a Hub !
Re: this Hub - I'm a great fan of the internet - correction, I'm a confirmed addict of the internet !
It's getting the balance that's the things. I'm considering -haing a non-computing day once a week, or twice a month. I did try it once and spent ages the next day catching up on emals .......
I have a 12 year old nephew who rarely makes eye contacts when he's talking to people - there are so many screens around him (TV, computer, phone, PSP, iPod etc) that he is looking at one of them I'd say 90% of the time when interacting with other people. His convertsation doesn't seem to suffer in terms of what he says - but the pauses in hs speech paterns are sometimes strange as his attention levels switch between the various inputs he is experiencing.
Oh you are a wonderful writer. So professional, this is a brilliant article I am in total awe of you. By the way I placed my vote for you a few days ago. :)
Hi BP - thanks for your comment and for your vote. I really enjoyed reading abou your romp around the world by the way - I bet you and you-know-who are the talking point of many a little cafe across europe and asia !
I really enjoyed this article. It got my brain all jazzed up! There is a lot to say, but I will try to keep my comment a comment; rather than a hub :)
With regards to ego, my first first thought is as follows ... is validation in a virtual world somehow less valuable than validation in the real world? What if I wrote a bunch of articles on Hubpages and got validation that way; vs putting that same content in lecture format and going on the bus. Certainly, the virtual validation in this case, is just as valuable.
So perhaps the issue is that virtual validation alone or extreme online addiction may somehow inhibit our creativity, and imagination; thereby limiting the future of our race. But I have a difficult time seeing this. It seems that online interactions help to expand our creativity and imagination because we can share our ideas with many more people, and get a greater variety of input, which would encourage further innovations. In fact, this very hub, and all the comments, made me think a lot more, and provided good brain exercise. :)
HI Iphigenia, what a thought provoking hub. Do you know I was struck with the thought about virtual contact being easier that face to face contact? Although I do visit facebook and hubpages as often as I can and enjoy my online interactions, I still find face to face relationships more meaningful and joyful. You see I get to actually hug them and see their eyes light up when they are happy and hold hands too. :-) Yes, we do need to balance it - our online and offline lives. LOL
So..you are once again a hubnugget nominee! This hub caught the attention of the hubnuggets team. here is the link for you to go and vote: http://hubpages.com/hub/Hubber-Poll-March19-2009-B
Vote, vote and vote and invite as many people to vote. :-) Let's make our spring hubnuggets a celebration of this season! Have fun.
Hi shibishake and ripplemaker - thanks for your thoghtful comments - I'm all for social netwoking and use it daily - but the personal touch and face to face interaction is vital to me too.
I think the interesting thing - which will concern some but not seem to be an issue to others - is that the physical make up of the brain is actually changing. This is evolution. The kids who have been born into this technology - like my 12 year old nephew - are evolutionary-wise different to us. How and if this needs to be monitored or just allowed to develope is a moot point.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOTES !
Very thought provoking hub! And interesting lectures below. I think I need to watch the rest of it...if for no other reason than to understand my children better. Thanks for the info and links! Another great hub, Iphigenia!
I don't like your Implication Pilgrim, but your Logic and Conclusions are spot on!
Monk
Great hub. One interested in this subject might want to read the hub titled "MyFace."
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A great, and interesting hub. I agree that this probably does have an effect, at least on our attention spans, as I have noticed my own attention span suffering. And I can easily believe that it's changing other aspects of our brains as well.
It is a worry for our children and future generations should this trend towards immediate communication and instant results continue.
Perhaps we should consider some lifestyle changes..
Well done! Valid points! I have noticed quite a few internet ego's swell, yet when I spend time with the actual person, they often have forgotten how to interact face to face.
I am a recent fan of facebook and use it to share my life but I make a point to get out and experience all that life has to offer before I share it. Too many people are trying to experience life via the internet....BIG mistake. We should turn off the phones, computer, etc... Get out and actually live...then share our experiences on facebook!
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Elena. says:
8 months ago
Hi Iphigenia! What great, thought provoking article. I started writing a comment that looked like a hub in itself, so I deleted that and I'm going to be shorter :-) Of the areas you picked, I find that the ego/self and the interaction to others are the most impacted. Because I have lived a life that didn't include the internet in more than half of it, I am quite inclined to agree with Professor Greenfield's views. I wonder, however, what type of research and analysis will be written in 10 or 20 years time. Geez, a fascinating topic!
I think you may enjoy this hub, say hi to robie2 if you visit :-)http://hubpages.com/hub/Internet-memories-microchi