Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind

[anam_moon]

Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.

Comments

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

Too long.

(I'm kidding)

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

(talks in baby talk to you) Awwww...did your widdle bwain get bored? ;)

[devonapple.livejournal.com]

Yessy-wessy!

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

*chuckle*

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Gol darn it, I toldja when ya came up with this "writing" thing, it would rot yer brains! An now look at ya! All this talking, and writing, and making friends, and is ANYBODY memorizing the sagas anymore? Anyone?

I THINK NOT!

... Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford ...

[jackkansas.livejournal.com]

Be careful, My Lady. Doctors Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary, formerly of Harvard University, were similarly tempted.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

She says, on Livejournal.

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

LOL! I know! ^_^

[borderlad.livejournal.com]

Far, FAR too late...

As I recall, "That music you kids listen to these days," has already done this.
Oh, television already did it, too.
And video games.
And cell phones.
And texting.

Mm, fear.

[anam-moon.livejournal.com]

Kids these days with their rock music... *shakes cane*

[ladysashi.livejournal.com]

Hate to say it, but I agree 100%. I've been intensely involved in the internet community since it was the BBS community in the 1980's, before browsers, before DSL, when dial-up was an agonizing 12KB download speed. I have to say that the current generation raised on the internet world are really a bunch of screwed up individuals, moreso than I noticed from past generations.

It's mostly their parents' faults, you know. Yuppie corporate-climbers had kids for the sake of having a status symbol; they never wanted to take the proper time to be parents. Instead, they allowed computer games & the internet to act as "babysitters" and moral guides. What they didn't consider was that when you allow an emotional and mental child to have unlimited access to information and other people who's moral standards are less than you own, there will be abuse. Bad behavior, a lack of a moral center, and less respect is the end product. Voila! Instant recipe for a lost generation.

I pray the parents of the future get a clue, before they pass on their uncivilized ways onto another generation.

[jackkansas.livejournal.com]

I must have missed the smiley.

There aren't enough young people in my life, but I have been extraordinarily impressed with the ones I know. I think of the Hobbit children born after Sam Gamgee tossed the dust from Galadrial's garden into the air.

“Unlimited access to information and other people” is a good thing. Secrets and circumscribed worlds can be great evils.

[ladysashi.livejournal.com]

Are there good kids out there? Sure. But I think something about being behind a computer monitor can turn even good kids into monsters. That's because there's something psychologically powerful about being able to not let other people know who you are, and being able to abuse them as a result. There's also something about the need to "live" through fake internet networks (be they online video games, or places like 2nd Life, MySpace, Facebook, LJ) for your major social outlet that can twist a person's perception, so that they don't see the truth, so that they think causing death and pain isn't so bad (and that it can actually be fun), so that life and compassion don't have much meaning.

Don't take my word for it, though:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKSYD31450620080307?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
(A British teenager met 2 lesbian killers from Australia over the internet and for over a year, they had cybersex online without anyone ever knowing. The killers then convinced the teen girl to run away and move in with them. The girl convinced her irresponsible parents to pay for a one-way ticket for her, stating that it was a school trip.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1942317/Girl-gang-killed-Harrow-neighbour-with-internet-bomb.html
(These 2 underaged girls built a bomb - from information over the internet - to get even with their classmate neighbor because they were fighting over a boy... The bomb killed a neighbor, put the classmate in the hospital, and destroyed 3 homes)

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-53178807.html
(This 13 year old girl was killed by a man whom she met through an internet sex chat room -"On the Internet, she used provocative screen names and routinely had sex with partners she met in chat rooms," police said. She was in 6th grade.)

http://www.cyberbullying.info/examples/msg_detail.php?eg=japan
(This 12 year old Japanese girl killed her 11 year old best friend - slashed her throat open and let her bleed to death - for an argument they had about something on the internet)

And how about that American cyber-bullying case where the girl ended up hanging herself in dispair???

Technology can't replace real-life parental guidance, and the internet has opened dangerous doors for them because of their inexperience and immaturity. Saying that, I am not advocating that the internet be monitored by Big Brother. I'm advocating that parents take a more active role in their teens' online use. They need to stop relying on parental software to check things out for them in advance. They need to stop taking at face value everything that their kid says about their whereabouts and goings-ons, no matter how much they might want to believe them. They need to stop expecting technology to keep their children safe. That's naive and stupid. Technology's job isn't to babysit, teach manners, instill self-respect, or cause responsibility to bloom. That's the duty of parents.

[jackkansas.livejournal.com]

Statistically speaking, your best chance of being raped or killed is by a family member or friend. This was true long before the Internet, and it’s true now. Sure, there are Internet horror stories — and I could tell similar stories that have no relation to the Internet.

The Internet puts a new twist on some old problems. It also provides some unique opportunities. Social networking enables kids to transcend the confines of family or geography and establish affinity and support groups hitherto impossible. You don’t have to be at the mercy of the local peer group or the “in crowd,” you can find friendly folk anywhere, especially if you’re “different” (smart, geeky, gay, whatever). It enables kids to find out the truth about things like birth control, things maybe parents have not been forthcoming about.

Good parenting is as important now as it’s always been — maybe more in a society whose media applauds violence and meaningless sex and the Mafia way of life. But I don’t see that the Internet has made that any worse.