'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.
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.'
Are we really being told anything we did not already know? Comics replaced books: the radio replaced books and hobbies: TV replaced books, hobbies and the ability to reason: computer games replaced these three and added a mindlessness or 'turning off of the brain'. Now we have facebook et al to compound the situation.
Not one of the above is bad in its own right - indeed all can have a number of positives - but all have a massive role to play when usage is up to epidemic proportions.
'Dumbing down' does not all come directly from our deeply flawed education system.
