Pondering social media

Written by Simon Bennison

Monday, 02 March 2009 00:00

So, I read that Baroness Greenfield instigated a debate in the House of Lords to discuss how the “dangerous submersion of our culture in screen technologies”, particularly social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo, have created a decline of attention spans in general, and a rise in ADHD in particular. Neurologist Greenfield believes that the need for ‘immediate reward’ that social networking provides stimulates similar chemicals in the brain to those leading to drug addiction.

Now that is powerful. Of course, it’s too early to prove any of this but it is interesting to read the article on the Guardian website just to appreciate her sheer confidence in the theory.

Is this not a little reminiscent of older generations in the 1950s worrying about the dangers of rock’n’roll?

Ignoring the warnings, Alienation are prepared to place our long term attention spans at risk by wholeheartedly embracing on screen technologies and are always on the look out for new opportunities to make the most of the web. We’ve recently set up an account on Twitter as a place for ideas and thoughts that will filter into the rest of the work we do, and allow us to share the things that inspire us with a larger audience. Despite the monumental scale of Facebook, it’s still early days for social networking.

I loved the way Avinash Kaushik summed it up on his own Twitter account; "OH: Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise its not better."

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