Journalist and social commentator James Harkin, author of the new book Cyburbia: The Dangerous Idea That's Changing How We Live and Who We Are has responded, via his website www.jamesharkin.co.uk, to recent suggestions by Baroness Susan Greenfield that too much online activity risks 'infantalising' the mind, leaving us all prone to "short attention spans, sensationalism, [an] inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity".
James Harkin - who in Cyburbia explores the social, technological, psychological and sociological developments that have led to the growth of the Internet - sees things a little differently: "It is only because the medium of the net is at such an infantile stage of its development that we spend our time Twittering, writing Facebook updates and staring out onto the electronic ether.
"Despite what Greenfield says, it is the medium which is infantile and not us. What we urgently need are people who capable of engaging our fragmented attention in different ways and doing interesting things with it."
Visit www.jamesharkin.co.uk to read the full, thought-provoking article.
Posted 27/02/2009 11:47:58 by Darren Turpin with 0 comments.
Hardback: £17.99