e-Learning Stuff Podcast #015: Social networking rots your brains

James, Lilian, Lisa and Ron discuss the recent publicity over
Susan Greenfield’s comments in the Daily Mail on the “dangers” of
social networking and young people’s brains. Does using social
networking sites lead to loneliness and isolation? Do users of
Facebook and Twitter feel excluded from society. In this podcast
we discuss the furore and the issues.


This is the fifteenth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, Social networking
rots your brains.


Shownotes


* James’ blog post on this subject.
* BBC News reports on Susan Greenfield.
* The story then ran in the Daily Mail and Susan was
interviewed.
* Dr Ben Goldacre has published his reaction to the article on
the Bad Science blog.
* Dr Ben Goldacre also linked to some useful academic papers
which dispute the “connection” between social networking and
loneliness.
o Caplan SE published a paper in 2007 entitled: “Relations among
loneliness, social anxiety, and problematic Internet use.” Dr
Sigman did not quote this paper in his article. Why not? “The
results support the hypothesis that the relationship between
loneliness and preference for online social interaction is
spurious.”
o Sum et al published a paper in 2008 with the title: “Internet
use and loneliness in older adults“. Dr Sigman chose not to quote
this paper. Why not? I don’t know, although it does contain the
line “greater use of the Internet as a communication tool was
associated with a lower level of social loneliness.”
o Subrahmanyam et al published a paper in 2007 called
“Adolescents on the net: Internet use and well-being.” It
features the line “loneliness was not related to the total time
spent online, nor to the time spent on e-mail”. Dr Sigman ignored
it.
* Another good blog post on this is from Sue Thomas.
* Why Social Networks Are Good for the Kids.
* Age Concern backs social networks.


Finally the photo above of zombies meeting in the real world was
organised on Facebook. So you could argue that Facebook has
turned them into zombies, however I don’t think these kinds of
social gatherings was what Susan Greenfield meant.