Ah, the horrors of online social networking. The web is where all of the serial killers and sociopaths live, after all – isn’t it?
That’s what scientists would have you believe.
New research indicates that the information streams doled out by social networking sites are too quick for our brain’s “moral compass” to process – and could inadvertently harm young people’s emotional development.
Before our brains can understand and digest the pain and suffering of a news item, the next news bulletin or Twitter update comes a-calling, according to a University of Southern California study.
“If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people’s psychological states and that would have implications for your morality,” said researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang.
The report will be printed in next week’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition.
So what do you think? Will social media turn into a bunch of brainless news zombies?
I tend to thing that we as humans will do what we have always done – adapt and overcome.
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