The NPR radio program On the Media had an interesting story last week. It was about neuropsychologist Vaughan Bell’s article in Slate.com concerning alleged negative effects of technology on our brains and behavior. Bell says that these popular media reports are based mostly on hearsay rather than on evidence from actual research. He thinks that it is a bad idea to reach conclusions about this issue based on anecdotal or scant information.
Pardon my “I told you so” attitude, but Bell does underscore the message I harp on in my February 16 and January 5 posts. Still, I don’t agree with his more general conclusion, that technology has negligible effects on our lives. Of course, Bell doesn’t say exactly that. He is talking about demonstrable effects of technology (defined as video game and Internet use) on our neurons and behavior. Besides, Bell’s conclusion would not apply if we had research questions about possible effects of technology from sociological, political, cultural or economic perspectives.
Speaking of sociological impacts of technology, I want to recount a naturalistic participant-observer field study I accidentally conducted on this very topic! Well…okay, I admit this wasn’t exactly field research. It is just a story I offer because I think it is interesting and fairly revealing. [Read more...]
