Here We Go With The Alarmist Social-Networking Stuff

The concern trolls are out and hunting for victims:

Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an eminent scientist has warned.

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred.

No, trendy ADD-like narcissism predates social networking sites. I blame the advent of movies about a hundred years ago.

The claims from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield will make disturbing reading for the millions whose social lives depend on logging on to their favourite websites each day.

The Susan Greenfields of the world disturb me not in the least. They never, ever go away, so one may as well get used to them.

More than 150million use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts.

A further six million have signed up to Twitter, the 'micro-blogging' service that lets users circulate text messages about themselves.

Good for them!

But while the sites are popular - and extremely profitable - a growing number of psychologists and neuroscientists believe they may be doing more harm than good.

Baroness Greenfield, an Oxford University neuroscientist and director of the Royal Institution, believes repeated exposure could effectively 'rewire' the brain.

Computer games and fast-paced TV shows were also a factor, she said.

Do you know what rewires the brain? Life. Anything that happens to a person will rewire the brain. That's why we have brains.

'We know how small babies need constant reassurance that they exist,' she told the Mail yesterday.

'My fear is that these technologies 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.'

The Susan Greenfields of the world need constant reassurance that they exist. I count myself among those "who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment," but I blame advertising for that state of affairs, not social-networking sites. Better yet, I blame the buzzing noises and bright lights.

Lady Greenfield told the Lords a teacher of 30 years had told her she had noticed a sharp decline in the ability of her pupils to understand others.

It may be her pupils are having a harder and harder time understanding what makes such worrywarts tick. I know I'm befuddled when I turn my short attention span to the question.

'It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations,' she said.

Yes, this is called "progress." When I talk to young people, I'm impressed with what a better sort we have today, compared to when I was growing up.

She pointed out that autistic people, who usually find it hard to communicate, were particularly comfortable using computers.

And this is relevant - how?

'Of course, we do not know whether the current increase in autism is due more to increased awareness and diagnosis of autism, or whether it can - if there is a true increase - be in any way linked to an increased prevalence among people of spending time in screen relationships. Surely it is a point worth considering,' she added.

No, this is a point not worth considering. How about we NOT consider this point, and say we did.

Psychologists have also argued that digital technology is changing the way we think. They point out that students no longer need to plan essays before starting to write - thanks to word processors they can edit as they go along.

Hallelujah for word processors! Planning essays is good, of course, but writing essays is better.

Satellite navigation systems have negated the need to decipher maps.

This may be more of a problem, since maps are useful and condense lots of information, but if people really don't need maps anymore, then they should dispense with them. Still, mapping utilities are among the most-popular uses of the Internet. If people really don't need maps, they nevertheless somehow spend lots of time looking at them.

A study by the Broadcaster Audience Research Board found teenagers now spend seven-and-a-half hours a day in front of a screen.

This is a problem, mostly for physical development and hand-eye coordination, but it's a hell of lot better of a problem than we had 40 years ago, hanging out in front of the TV for seven-and-a-half hours every day. At least computer use is interactive, and not passive, like TV. I rewired my brain long ago to remember every episode on "Gilligan's Island," and never fully-recovered. It's better to rewire young brains to play "Halo," like they do these days.

Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood, said: 'We are seeing children's brain development damaged because they don't engage in the activity they have engaged in for millennia.

'I'm not against technology and computers. But before they start social networking, they need to learn to make real relationships with people.'

You know what prevents making real relationships with people. Isolation. Like what a rural upbringing did to children for millenia. Somehow, we struggled on.

Can we worry about something else?