Susan Greenfield Quotes

that e-reading resulted in poorer comprehension, as a result of the physical limitations of the text that forced readers to scroll up and down, thereby disrupting their reading with a spatial instability

The more connections you can make across an ever wider and more disparate range of knowledge, the more deeply you will understand something. Search engines and videogames do not provide that facility; nothing does, other than your own brain.

Digital Native born then could read and write, email (which started around 1993) would have become an inescapable part of life. The important distinction is that Digital Natives know no other way of life other than the culture of Internet, laptop, and mobile. They can be freed from the constraints of local mores and hierarchical authority and, as autonomous citizens of the world, will personalize screen-based activities and services while collaborating with, and contributing to, global social networks and information sources.

Learning a second language increases the density of gray matter, the changes observed being correlated with skill level.

More than a third of couples who married between 2005 and 2012 in the United States reported meeting their spouse online, with about half of these meeting through online dating sites and the rest through other online sites such as social networking sites and virtual worlds.

As a species, we seem to have such a craving for self-disclosure that it could be considered a very basic part of the human psyche. Harvard scientists have actually demonstrated that sharing personal information about oneself, as on social networking sites, activates the reward systems in the brain the same way as food and sex do.

The Flynn effect is most visible on IQ tests that measure a more computational type of mental agility

reduction in the risk of embarrassment and feelings of unease in social interaction. No one can see you blush, hear your voice go squeaky, or feel your damp palms. But then again, nor can you pick up on these all-important cues for working out how the other person might be reacting. In 2012, the British communications watchdog Ofcom produced its ninth annual Communications Market Report. The director of research for Ofcom, James Thickett, was acutely aware of the significance of the decline that year’s report found in the number of mobile calls, which dropped by 1 percent, and in the number of landline calls, which decreased by 10 percent. He concluded: In just a few short years, new technology has fundamentally changed the way that we communicate. Talking face-to-face or on the phone are no longer the most common ways for us to interact with each other. In their place, newer forms of communications are emerging which don’t require us to talk to each other, especially among younger age groups. This trend is set to continue as technology advances and we move further into the digital age.2

parents are most likely to be Digital Immigrants and their children Digital Natives. The former are still learning the enormous potential of these technologies in adulthood, while the latter have known nothing else.

Once again, evidence from Japan and Korea indicates a lack of interest in sex, or even in dating, among the younger generations. Tellingly, nearly half of all Japanese women ages sixteen to twenty-four are “not interested in or despise sexual contact,” and nearly a quarter of men feel the same way.

A further consideration in reading from a screen is the greater potential for eyestrain. The differences between the printed page and the screen have significant consequences for visual ergonomics.

Some four hundred years before the birth of Christ, Socrates was concerned that writing would destroy mental prowess, with arguments eerily similar to those we’ve explored here with respect to the Internet.