Hey Guys
For my reflective new post I decided to look at an article that appeared on the UK newspaper The Daily Mail. Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist by David Derbyshire looks at the growing fear among academics and parents that the growth of use of social networking sites among young people are in fact changing the way young minds work. The article reveals that this growing use could in fact be leading to a more self centered youth with short attention spans who demand instant gratification.
I think this is a really scary article and made me consider my own interactions with Facebook and social networking sites and whether it is somehow changing the way my brain is wired. I also started to notice aspects of things the article mentions that I myself do, which was a bit worrying, because "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," something which I regularly do.
I myself have to some extent noticed these so called affects in todays youth. I work part-time at a school and I have noticed that many of the children have very short attention spans and do have this seeming need for instant gratification. However I am a bit dubious as to whether this is caused by their use of social networking or whether it is simply a fact that generations are changing and that these children have low attention spans because they are just that, they are children.
However, I also really respect the fact that the psychologists in the article make it clear they don't dislike social networks, but rather they feel that young people need to learn how to "make real relationships with people."
Just some of my thoughts,
Luke
No comments:
Post a Comment