Facebook and Twitter creating vain generation of self-obsessed people
July 30, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
By
Sarah Harris
Last updated at 2:41 PM on 30th July 2011
Facebook and Twitter have created a generation obsessed with themselves, who have short attention spans and a childlike desire for constant feedback on their lives, a top scientist believes.
Repeated exposure to social networking sites leaves users with an ‘identity crisis’, wanting attention in the manner of a toddler saying: ‘Look at me, Mummy, I’ve done this.’
Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, believes the growth of internet ‘friendships’ – as well as greater use of computer games – could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain.
Vain generation: A top Oxford scientist has warned that repeated exposure to social networking websites could harm users. (Picture posed by model)
This can result in reduced concentration, a need for instant gratification and poor non-verbal skills, such as the ability to make eye contact during conversations.
More than 750million people across the world use Facebook to share photographs and videos and post regular updates of their movements and thoughts.
Millions have also signed up to Twitter, the ‘micro-blogging’ service that lets members circulate short text and picture messages about themselves.
Baroness Greenfield, former director of research body the Royal Institution, said: ‘What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out on Twitter.
‘Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? It reminds me of a small child (saying): “Look at me Mummy, I’m doing this”, “Look at me Mummy I’m doing that”.
‘It’s almost as if they’re in some kind of identity crisis. In a sense it’s keeping the brain in a sort of time warp.’
A twitter message from Stephen Fry
The academic suggested that some Facebook users feel the need to become ‘mini celebrities’ who are watched and admired by others on a daily basis.
They do things that are ‘Facebook worthy’ because the only way they can define themselves is by ‘people knowing about them’.
‘It’s almost as if people are living in a world that’s not a real world, but a world where what counts is what people think of you or (if they) can click on you,’ she said.
‘Think of the implications for society if people worry more about what other people think about them than what they think about themselves.’
Her views were echoed by Sue Palmer, a literacy expert and author, who said girls in particular believe they are a ‘commodity they must sell to other people’ on Facebook.
She said: ‘People used to have a portrait painted but now we can more or less design our own picture online. It’s like being the star of your own reality TV show that you create and put out to the world.’
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I sharedez this with my homies on facebux. Lolz xx
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Yep, most people these days who use those sites are total narcissists.
I quite liked the Bacardi advert saying “Update your status in person”… leave the networking sites alone and have a proper conversation! I can guarantee that your friends would give a better reaction than a ‘like’ to what happened to you at the shops today.
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NO they are not! It’s so unfair!
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I don’t even know why you used ” ” when talking about friends. Believe it or not Daily Mail, online friends can be just as beneficial to you as friends who you’ve grown up with.
I’ve met people from the internet (they weren’t paedophiles either) and they’ve become some of my closest friends, we chill all the time together, and they know me just as well as any of the friends I met in nursery or primary school.
Accusing the majority of Facebook and Twitter of having histrionic personality disorder is pretty weak, guff article.
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I have a Facebook account and I hate those who have albums called : “Me” and those who take LOTS of pictures of them in the mirror where we can see there phone or camera and the flash. I have “friends” on Facebook with 1000s of pictures of them and lots of people put stupid comments. And there are those who say : “I don’t look pretty on that photo” THEN WHY DO YOU POST IT ON THE INTERNET!!! And then, they say :”I am too fat” and everyone says : “not at all!!” even if they should think of going on a diet. And those who really are obsessed with themselves say : “I am ugly” and everyone comments….
and there is also Photoshop
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So Baroness Greenfield criticises Facebook users as attention seeking, whilst simultaneously getting her name splashed all over the Daily Mail and other media.
Hypocrite Moi?
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