4thought.tv

Social networking, video games and the like become harmful when they largely replace personal interaction; usage at this level is surely excessive and often addictive. However, so long as we can maintain a healthy social life in the real world I can't see how social networking is inherently harmful. Bullying and other offensive behaviour is facilitated on the internet, but we shouldn't conflate the medium with how we use it. That said, the problem in my opinion is that social networking is replacing personal interaction at an alarming rate - a symptom of a fundamentally unhealthy society.

Baroness Susan Greenfield.
As long as sex is more fun with a partner than pounding away on your own in front of a screen Society has nothing to worry about.

As long as she's not claiming to have scientifically proven this to be correct, it's quite an interesting hypothesis.

Social Networking is making it easy to get in trouble when you are talking to enemies/friends on a website if you see that person in real life aswell.

I agree with everything she has said.

I personal don't think the internet has affected the way we communicate and how we interact that much. Yes, we do a lot of things on the internet more often, but I feel that these things only really take affect if we come into contact with something similar in real life.
Also, I know this isn't important, but she keeps saying "trolling" wrong.

I wish I had said this.It is what I have observed and what I believe. Many blogs and problem discussion sites I visit have many young people seeking help with relationships. In most cases the root cause is that they are attempting to live their lives and work through their emotional attachments through texts and tweets, avoiding real contact with a real person. Human beings are equipped with hyper-sensitive systems for reading and interpreting feedback from face to face encounters. Electronic devices short-circuit the human contact. No wonder device-to-device interaction can be so inhuman and inhumane

I Think people Should stop moaning about nonsense you can`t do anything about it, I Get so angry about some of the people that go on this 4thought I Can`t write what I Really want on here without offending people ARGH!!!

You are completely disconnected from the society you are commenting on. Trolling is not saying hurtful things, it's playing devils advocate and watching people explode for amusement, a practice that has been around as long as intelligent discourse. The people you describe as trolls are people who naievely believe that there's an anonymous veil you can hide behind on the internet in order to fuel hatred and is a symptom of society in general and didn't suddenly rise with the internet. How social networks are in any way related is a bit of a red herring, do you blame the postal service for the poison pen letter of yesteryear?

Not enough time / space to say all that I want .
No , intrinsically this invention has NOT changed our morality - it was sliding ANYWAY.wHAT IT HAS DONE IS Facilitate a swift slide downhill - allowing people to disengage with the receivers of their comments ........just as text makes it impossible to have a real dialogue .
The impossibility of on time feedback ; even discussion makes it a tool for bullies of all kinds - and especially those who do not want to grow up and discuss anything - so any sort of authentic truth is lost too .
And - for the future - that is really scary - as a whole generaltion of people will have grown up without even realising that part of being human involves READING people - not text , and watching , listening ,learning.
Machinery cannot command respect - but they can help it disappear

Fantastic film, agree with every word. Some of the things I have seen in forums are totally despicable..human beings were not meant to interact in this way, and it remains to be seen how we evolve in the future now the internet is part of our lives.. I believe there are so many negative aspects and that the cons well outweigh the pros..

Interesting this came just after the news which included a piece on the man with locked-in sydrome. The one bit of happiness he showed was when he used twitter. Perhaps he should instead get out and meet some real people. Oh wait...

She contracts herself by saying that people would't do or say these things face-to-face but do say them over the internet. The fact that they wouldn't says these face-to-face surly means that the core morality hash't changed or there would be no qualms for these people in saying these things face-to-face either.

She seems to be confusing morality with politeness and social etiquette. When people put unpleasant and upsetting comments online they are probably revealing their true thoughts and feelings which they would have hidden in a face to face encounter - their morality hasn't changed.

What absolute nonsense! Stereotyping at its worse and coming from a scientist it is appalling. Exactly the same could be said about the telephone.

You're just annoyed that the LIB/LAB/CON Communist, Marxist, Totalitarian ideology is DYING as the media and political elite hear what REAL people say and feel on twitter/Facebook which is very much contray to what is portrayed on the media at ALL levels (which is a far-left mantra) as well as the draconian anti-free speech, positive discrimination laws which have been implemented by successive Lib/Lab/Con governments that make telling the truth an offence - social media doesn't enforce these laws or subscribe to the cultural Marxist ideology either, hence why un-heard or views many think have "been 'dealt' with and 'overcome' are returning, they weren't overcome or dealt with, just SILENCED and now social media has re-awoken them ALL and given a platform that has been denied for years!