

Study: Students Addicted to Social Media, or Is it Brain Evolution? - marywallace
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2010/04/23/study-students-addicted-to-social-media-or-is-it-brain-evolution/

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gxs
This is not brain evolution.

I somehow doubt that using or not using facebook has an effect on your
reproductive success. (on second thought, does it?)

Even if it did, we wouldn't be seeing the effects on the current facebook-
using population.

I don't doubt that our communication patterns are changed by using
applications like facebook, but I think it's far fetched to call it evolution.
This is where misnomers and miscommunication originate.

/rant

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goodside
To be pedantic, evolution doesn't have to be evolution by natural selection.
The word "evolution" is used all the time to describe changes in cultures,
technologies, and individuals. These aren't even poetic extensions of
Darwinian evolution; the term was in use before Darwin was born.

Your point still stands, of course. The original author obviously has no idea
how biological evolution works, and their theory is pseudoscientific nonsense.

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DanielStraight
I can understand the point the author is trying to make, but this line was
disturbing to me:

"The fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was
almost unbearable."

It brings me back to Jaron Lanier's _You Are Not a Gadget_ , wherein Jaron
makes the argument that, basically, technology can only replace real life if
we dumb down our expectations of real life.

This student's inability to communicate in the real world is a substantial
dumbing down of communication. Communication on the net cannot equal
communication in real life. When someone's interest in the net leaves them
only able to communicate at the level afforded by technology, then there is a
problem.

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sp332
Are you saying phones and computers are not in the real world? He's not
talking to artificial constructs, he's communicating with real people. It's
not like most face-to-face conversations express any ideas or emotions deeper
or more subtle than could be expressed online.

I think you are assuming that everyone shares your inability to communicate
effectively online. It's fine that you are more comfortable communicating
offline, but not everyone needs that depth of interaction in every
conversation.

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pyre
You're forgetting that body language can not be transmitted over text or
audio. You're also forgetting that tone of voice cannot be transmitted over
text.

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pyre
They have a picture comparing Facebook to cocaine, right next to their "share
this story on Facebook/Twitter/etc" strip...

