Yesterday’s NYT Mind over Mass Media – Steven Pinker does a great job of addressing the debate that the internet has a negative effect on cognitive functioning.
Yes, the constant arrival of information packets can be distracting or addictive, especially to people with attention deficit disorder. But distraction is not a new phenomenon. The solution is not to bemoan technology but to develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life. Turn off e-mail or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour.
And to encourage intellectual depth, don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google. It’s not as if habits of deep reflection, thorough research and rigorous reasoning ever came naturally to people. They must be acquired in special institutions, which we call universities, and maintained with constant upkeep, which we call analysis, criticism and debate. They are not granted by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they taken away by efficient access to information on the Internet. continue reading
Source: New York Times
Published: December 23, 2009
Parents worried that their college students are spending too much time on Facebook and other social networking sites and not enough time hitting the books can breathe a sigh of relief. New research from the University of New Hampshire finds that students who heavily engage in social networking do just as well academically as students who are less interested in keeping in touch with the medium. [continue reading…]
Published: August 21, 2009
Computer scientists at the University of Southampton are using social networking tools to explore if individuals can enhance their personal and social wellbeing over time if they quickly share how they feel about issues such as their busyness, enjoyment, health and stress via these networks. [continue reading…]
Celebrities, media personalities and athletes are increasingly being misrepresented in the world of new social media, especially on Twitter. Are social media going through the same growing pains that were experienced in the early days of the Internet? Why do people feel compelled to commit social media fraud? Temple University experts in new media, journalism and psychology offer their insights. [continue reading…]