Peaceful paddock scene.
Jj is for Jottings 29. More of the Neuroscientist’s Comments.
Continuing the theme from Jottings 28, Baroness Greenfield warns that children who once used their imaginations are now more likely to sit in front of a screen with a menu of choices somebody else has designed. I have heard people say that reading books also stifles imagination, because someone else has imagined the story. This is not the same thing, however. The story line is only the starting point, and we still create pictures in our imagination, and some people even imagine sounds when reading a book. How many times have we read a book first, then seen the film and were terribly disappointed because the film didn’t match what we had imagined? Further, she says: “You can cruise on YouTube or on Google going ‘yuck’ and ‘wow’, but you’re not actually making sense of things.”
On the topic of social media, Baroness Greenfield agrees that social media can have some very positive uses, such as communicating with family or friends across the world, but a problem arises – children (and adults) have lists of friends that they don’t actually know. They’re really more of an audience. Then the focus becomes maintaining and entertaining this audience (and entering into the unspoken competition of “Who has the most ‘friends’?”). Herein lurks the danger of presenting an artificial identity in an effort to seek the approval of the audience. And we’ve all heard stories of nastiness on social media because people aren’t constrained by face to face communication. The result of all this is that we now need to explicitly teach social rules that children once learned in normal everyday interactions. Eg. If you wouldn’t say it to their face, don’t “say” it online. A quote from the baroness: “I just wonder whether we might be looking at a generation who are completely self-centred, short attention spans, not very good at communication, rather needy emotionally and with a weak sense of identity?” I’m already seeing it in schools.
The pace of technological change is constantly increasing. The introduction of technologies such as cars, refrigerators, washing machines had a huge impact on people’s lives – but they were still living in the real world when they used them. These days you can wake up in the morning and work, play games, shop and even go dating without actually living in three dimensions. I prefer getting outside in the fresh air and enjoying all that nature has to offer, laughing and joking with people (you don’t get that spontaneity with online interactions), receiving instant feedback from their voice, eyes and body language (so you can sort out any misunderstandings immediately), and giving and getting plenty of hugs every day. I think it’s a recipe for a far happier life.