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Baroness Susan Greenfield: Is Online Networking Harmful?

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Euphis Avatar
Euphis
Posts: 1
Posted: 05.07.10, 04:54 AM
If this is the type of theoretical framework academics like Susan G. use to pass judgements on such a vast area of human activity, I am truly shocked. This is mere scientism. Less smug ethical subtext, more actual science please. For instance, arguing that new media lacks metaphors is a testament to the intellectual blind spot at display for all to see.

"Screen Culture" is admittedly an interesting subject to tackle but it still requires analytical effort to actually understand. Instead Susan falls prey to the sociological connotations relating to words like "Games" and "Facebook" and accepting those as truth. Cleverly using short movies herself to recall said metaphors and ironically using the symbolism for her own flawed reasoning. But the Baroness is witty, be it in a slightly elitist and patronizing manner.
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teloscientist Avatar
teloscientist
Posts: 1
Posted: 05.02.10, 05:16 PM
This talk was heavy on moralizing and pontification, light on evidence and data. Unfortunately, her examples showed a lack of understanding (and seemingly even of basic knowledge) of the worlds she was criticizing. Ex. Twitter is not driven by posts about about cats sneezing, or putting on your socks. Sad, because there is actual data she could have cited to make her points.
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jim couch Avatar
jim couch
Posts: 2
Posted: 04.30.10, 09:02 PM
Brilliant presentation. I want more please...
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jakt Avatar
jakt
Posts: 1
Posted: 01.18.10, 12:56 PM
i think the negative comments in this post are flimsy. she is making a comment on social networking in GENERAL. she is not singleing out an individual online software. she is talking about actual empiracle evidence and how the factors are playing on human minds from our use of these networking devices - w.o.w., twitter, fb, all of that is all part of the same thing. people can say what they want, people can do what they want. if someone needs attention, they can say something meaningless 150 times, or say something really harsh and unsettling once. i use these as much as the next person, but i didnt need this documentary to know that there had to be a negative effect. susan just put actual empiracle and studied evidence to the argument.

and for the record, if you feel the need to twitter about your cat, then yes, you have problems, and yes, you probably need attention. and it has no bearing on the validity of this doc. the botom line is - if you use online virtual worlds to get out of life what you can't get in the real one, you have problems. and this just backs it up.
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brotherlog Avatar
brotherlog
Posts: 1
Posted: 12.06.09, 12:31 PM
Perhaps the effects of screen culture? She spent the bulk of the talk with empirical studies and then a series of suspicions about the effect of video games. Surely there have been studies on the neurological effects of video games and we do not need to rely on the apparently self-diagnosed video?

Thousands of people have "blown their minds" by engrossing themselves in books at the exclusion of the real world. Some read Tolstoy but many many more read Danielle Steele and the Left behind series.

We really want the medium to be the message. But the medium can do incredible things too. Her smug dismissal of Twitter is self-indulgent. I have never seen anyone twit about putting their socks on but many talk about the mundane events in their lives as that they generally tell the people around them anyway. "I had a cheese sandwich." "I hate Mondays", Twitter just allows these boring conversations to be shared more widely. It also almost allowed the people of Iran to bring down the government. It will be the first source of all news very soon. It will be immediate.

Aren't some video games being prescribed as a means to help push back dementia and Alzheimer's?
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Rocket Avatar
Rocket
Posts: 3
Posted: 12.01.09, 07:45 AM
Wow. She is an outrageous hypocrite. In one presentation making sweeping assumptions about others and in another , with a more balanced comment that how can anyone view life thru anothers eyes ...
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Rocket Avatar
Rocket
Posts: 3
Posted: 12.01.09, 07:36 AM
Our knowledge of the brain is scant indeed. Susan G does seem to try to sound knowledgeable while in fact comments are rife with assumptions about the people dancing (... "they have done this ...... they are that ...." Does she know these people? .... Does she have any real knowledge of what they experience? Of what they think? Just what passes for science these days?

Honestly this short presentation is a shabby expression of what is, or is not known about the brain, of real knowledge. Assumptions and sweeping statements about how peoples brains work and process information seem quite a waste of time, especially her assumptions about others experience and use of a photo that seems to satisfy a need to belittle people she actually probably knows little of nothing real about.
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EasternBlot Avatar
EasternBlot
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.29.09, 02:30 PM
This presentation is terrible. First of all, who shows high school-level video clips in what is supposed to be a mainstream lecture? The point could have been made just as well and far more professionally by giving real data instead of a monologue by some idiot's story accompanied with a 80's techno beat. Also, she makes herself look foolish, passing judgment unnecessarily. As a scientist, and being presented as a scientist, it is unseemly for her to comment on the glories of books and the dangers of twitter. We've heard the same arguments about moral decay regarding comic books, jazz, and blacks having children with whites.

Much worse than her fogeyism, however, is that Dr. Greenfield quite hypocritical in claiming that genetics cannot be used as sufficient explanation for brain diseases in the beginning of her presentation and then proceeds to make poorly supported links between games and social networks with neurological disorders. Of course spending a significant time on computers can alter brain development, but she provided little real science for either direction.

The only advantage I can think of for her scaremongering is the hope that it can shift government funding towards more studies in the matter, but there are better ways to do so without dancing with the risks of unnecessary government interference.

As a final note, she seems have made a misleading title, or does not know what it means to be an online social network. Games and twitter, though quite famous, are but a small fraction of the systems that could be defined as online networks. Almost everyone in my social group uses facebook, maybe linkedin.

Overall, one of the poorer fora presentations.
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psikeyhackr Avatar
psikeyhackr
Posts: 3
Posted: 11.25.09, 09:20 AM
It is funny that she should talk about paying a MORTGAGE.

Does that mean she has adopted a ridiculous economic paradigm where she believes that she is obligated to pay someone else to live on THEIR PLANET.

Are psychologists too dumb to notice PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE 40 years after the Moon landing?

What does she know about REALITY?
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mrbaracuda Avatar
mrbaracuda
Posts: 1
Posted: 11.25.09, 04:16 AM
Complementary to the latter part of this presentation I recommend watching Philip Zimbardo: The Time Paradox.
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