February 25, 2009 by Matt Thomas
Whilst going about your business on or offline yesterday, you may have come across the Daily Mail’s giant front page banner headline that read something along the lines of ‘Facebook makes you stupid!’ The story behind that was that earlier in the month a scientist named Baroness Susan Greenfield had given testimony to the House of Lords stating that the impersonal communication and instant feedback that, in her opinion, characterises Facebook contact could be harmful to human minds.
“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.” – Greenfield.
Other scientists were quick to respond and worryingly many seemed to broadly back up Baroness Greenfield’s comments, albeit whilst keenly stressing that research is only beginning.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of her findings, a media storm has been created as papers, blogs and channels debate whether or not social networking is actually bad for you. A widespread scientific debate is also raging as to the effects and what, if anything, can be done about them.
However, even if it does turn out that Facebook is making us all stupid, I somehow doubt that many people will stop using it.
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