Modern technology is KILLING OUR YOUTH?
If I was to be uber sensationalist, I would use this title to reflect what Susan Greenfield and other scientists are saying about video games, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Lady Greenfield does believe something along these lines however. For at least several years now she has been involved in studies to do with the impact of modern technology on attention and behaviour in general. Essentially, what changes it's making to how young people of today think.
She has written several books that deal with these topics. She's world-renowned in this area. She knows her stuff in other words.
As the BBC, NZ Herald and other news agencies are running with, she has recently been speaking to the British House of Lords on these topics, giving warning to potential consequences and urging further investigations into damage caused by things like video games, Facebook and Twitter.
She contrasts real world relationships with virtual ones, saying things such as how real world relationships...
...require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and perhaps even to pheromones - those sneaky molecules that we release and which others smell subconsciously.
Moreover, according to the context and, indeed, the person with whom we are conversing, our own delivery will need to adapt. None of these skills are required when chatting on a social networking site.
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.
This seems all very plausable. Our behaviours tend to mould our brains in operating best to meet the needs of these behaviours - this is related to an area of neuroscience called neuroplasticity and more and more is being discovered about how our brains can and do change, even as adults to a limited extent.
Lady Greenfield goes on to say that ADHD and Autism may be connected to the "near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies."
And this is where I feel the scaremongering comes in. It would be great to get a full copy of what she said in order to get a clearer picture. I wasn't able to find one online quickly. However I can get a decent sense going by the quotes and her other writings, along with a book of hers I've read.
One big issue with linking modern technologies with ADHD is that researchers have been unable to ascertain a reliable reason for the attention difficulties of children labelled with ADHD - or even how attention (as defined by researches) factors into the mix.
Studies comparing ADHD children and non-ADHD children in regard to computer and video game usage tend to give mixed results. For example, one study showed no differences concerning video game use, although ADHD children exhibited more problems associated with videogame playing, suggesting that some ADHD children could be vulnerable to developing dependence.
One area that is not brought up often when people go on the war path over technology's impact on children are the many studies which show the benefits of electronic media for children, such as increased coordination and actually enhanced visual attention skills.
As for technology causing autism, that is even more of a stretch it seems. In the BBC article Professor David Skuse makes clear the reverse logic of this connection, saying...
The young people with autism we see do have a problem with face-to-face communication although they can be very articulate. They need to communicate and the internet is giving them a channel that they would not otherwise have.
So, modern technology and kids...what do we do? Last year a Psychologist Tanya Byron created a paper for the UK Government called Children and New Technology. As the title suggests it outlines guidelines for dealing with issues of high modern technology usage by youth. It's a good level-headed approach as she recognises the role of technology and how it can be a force for good if managed correctly.
One thing that strikes me about these relatively sensational claims by researchers such as Lady Greenfield is how they seem to follow the "oh no, it's new and a little scary, and I don't understand it properly, and things are changing, ahgrghrhh ban it!" type of thought process. This thought process seems to be one that has long been part of the human psyche and comes up every generational change.
We should not let the exaggeration of danger get in the way of the very real issues at play however. As Lady Greenfield mentions above, this modern world where young people can be constantly stimulated by texts and tweets most likely impacts to some degree on brain functioning. And as with most areas of psychological research, it is difficult to tease the causation out of the correlations.
The key questions are how much is this modern world really different to 200 years ago in terms of stimulating events and distractions? And what strategies do we need to put in place to ensure that modern technology enriches the lives of young people.