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2009-02-25 03:08:19
By Clare Murphy
BBC News health reporter
A number of reports have recently linked online networking and computer games
to a host of health risks.
Susan Greenfield, the eminent neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution,
is the latest to weigh into the debate, warning that young people's brains may
be fundamentally altered by internet activity.
While concerns about children and computers have usually focused on their
forging inappropriate relationships online, or failing to get enough exercise
as a result of being glued to a screen, the baroness suggested the consequences
may be more profound.
She told peers in the House of Lords it would be worth considering whether the
rise in autism - a condition marked by difficulties forming attachments - was
linked to the increasing prevalence of screen relationships.
Real-life conversations "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and
perhaps even to pheromones - those sneaky molecules that we release and which
others smell subconsciously.
It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in
brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations
Baroness Greenfield
"Moreover, according to the context and, indeed, the person with whom we are
conversing, our own delivery will need to adapt. None of these skills are
required when chatting on a social networking site," she said.
"It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in
brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations."
She also suggested that increasing diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder - ADHD - may be connected to the "near total submersion of our culture
in screen technologies".
Last week, a report published in the journal Biologist, suggested that a lack
of face-to-face contact could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses,
hormone levels and the function of arteries.
This, said author Aric Sigman, could increase the risk of health problems as
serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia.
Indisputably, people are spending more time online and social networking sites
are increasingly popular - the BBC even has a "my CBeebies" where youngsters
can create their own avatar.
Alone and ill
A number of studies have looked at the negative effects of social isolation on
health: from an increased risk of cardiovascular disease to outright death,
being lonely does not appear to be good for you.
They need to communicate and the internet is giving them a channel that they
would not otherwise have
Professor David Skuse
But whether computers - and social networking in particular - improve or
exacerbate social isolation in the first place is a moot point.
A spokeswoman for Cancer Research UK noted that there was no evidence to link
the disease with using Facebook.
If anything, it has been suggested, social networking may improve the quality
of life of those with cancer by allowing those affected to make contact.
Baroness Greenfield meanwhile points out that those on the autism spectrum are
particularly comfortable in the cyber world.
"She's right about that, but her analysis is the wrong way round," said
Professor David Skuse, of the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the Institute of
Child Health.
"The young people with autism we see do have a problem with face-to-face
communication although they can be very articulate. They need to communicate
and the internet is giving them a channel that they would not otherwise have.
He added: "As for ADHD, it's true that I have yet to meet a child who could not
concentrate on a computer. It seems to give them a way to focus in a way that
lessons at school do not. Most of those with ADHD find their condition very
distressing and want a way to control it - they want a way to focus."
In and out
Nonetheless Baroness Greenfield's overriding concerns about an ever more
self-absorbed generation unable to empathise with others do chime with popular
fears, says Helene Guldberg, a psychologist and author of Reclaiming Childhood:
Freedom and Play in an Age of Fear.
In an ideal world children would be freer to pursue their friendships and
activities outdoors, on the street, away from the watchful and worried eyes of
their parents
Helene Guldberg
Pyschologist
"Technology is something of an easy target when perhaps we should be asking
more difficult questions about our relationships with our children.
"But it is true that in an ideal world children would be freer to pursue their
friendships and activities outdoors, on the street, away from the watchful and
worried eyes of their parents.
"That doesn't make social networking sites wrong or damaging," she said. "But
they shouldn't be the only option for children to communicate with each other -
and let's not exaggerate the scale of the problem - we're not yet there."