David Stoughton of ValueKinetics writes:
Another week (OK last week), another report to government on Internet use and social media, drawing the usual conclusions. Young people using the Internet extensively are losing the touch with the world. They are inept in real social situations, perform poorly in various academic tests, marginally autistic etc. Disaster looms as a whole generation loses it. I don't recognise these individuals, do you?
In fact I recall, though I can't find it now, a report from Pew Research which apparently found that those who use social media sites most, also spend most face-time with their peers. Others have suggested that games-playing speeds the reflexes, that visual and communication skills are growing and, in general, extensive use of social media and mobiles is attended by a range of new, or sharpened abilities.
So, who is right here! Well, I don't have any conclusive evidence that would tip the argument either way. So I won't try. What I find interesting is that the negative reports nearly always emerge from government advisers, educational pundits and even parliamentary committees; whereas the positive ones seem to emanate from independent or university led research programmes.
In the sixties Mary Whitehouse led a campaign against the evils of that great destroyer of the minds of children, television. She and her followers, however, felt themselves to be on the outside, desperately trying to alert an indifferent government to the social destruction the growing beast was meting out. Big business interests and the establishment conspired, so she seemed to think, to encourage the growth of TV against the interests of the nation, because they were all making money out of it.
This time the situation is reversed. It's government and big media (today's establishment) that see disaster ahead, and other interested parties who are often positive. Is this the money connection again? Some media certainly see themseves as the losers, and perhaps government indirectly does too; leaned on by those media giants and perhaps perceiving a steady stream of tax revenue under threat. The Mary Whitehouse de nos jours is the establishment, while the rest of the world just gets on with exploring the possibilities.
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