Social networking and your health: What's the big deal?
The benefits of social media need no further explanation, but what about the drawbacks? Is there really an associated health risk? The verdict is not yet out, but two British scientists think too much time online may be bad for your body - and your brain.
"My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment," says Susan Greenfield, a pharmacology professor at Oxford University and the director of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Greenfield says social networking sites remind her of the way that "small babies need constant reassurance that they exist".
She has gone so far as to tell Britain's parliamentary chamber, the House of Lords, that social networking might be particularly harmful to children, and could be behind the observed rise in cases of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.
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About the author
Garreth Bloor is a staff reporter at [[www.memeburn.com]].