Mind Change by Susan Greenfield

Mind Change is subtitled “How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains” and author Lady Greenfield, a neuroscientist and member of the House of Lords, stands up to conventional views.  Much like the early advocates of climate change theories asked about uncertain causality, she proposes that social networks, video games, and surfing the net are all impacting us in unexplored ways. Lady Greenfield asks, for example, whether there might be a direct causal link between screen time and reduction in empathy. Mind Change contains over sixty pages of notes and a list for further reading with two dozen other texts on this subject.

Her chapters on social networks explore the possible implications on identity and relationships while the section on video games deals with potential impact on attention, addiction and aggression.  As an educator reading Mind Change, I appreciated that someone was raising the issue of “profound implications for the Digital Natives and their ability to research information on the Internet, and more widely still for learning in general and thus overall success in life.” I was surprised to see some rather negative reviews from sources such as The Economist and Wall Street Journal. Yes, the evidence cited may be tentative, but at least this book is an attempt to promote discussion. I wish those reviewers had more opportunities to work with young people and see the amount of time they spend with screens, how they struggle to form keyword searches and to make connections between ideas and with each other.  

If you are intrigued by the debates between researchers such as danah boyd (It’s Complicated), Nicholas Carr (The Shallows), Clifford Nass (The Man who Lied to his Laptop), Clay Shirkey (Cognitive Surplus), or Sherry Turkle (Alone Together), pick up Mind Change for another piece in an important and evolving puzzle.