A spat has broken out among several distinguished Oxford University researchers regarding the effect of digital technology use on the brain development of children. Baroness Susan Greenfield has been attacked by several of her colleagues who disagree with her claims that overuse of digital media can be detrimental to children and possibly cause autism.
Greenfield is a high-profile science researcher in the UK, who led Great Britain's prestigious Royal Institution from 1998 until her position was eliminated in 2010 amid a financial crisis. Greenfield recently published a book entitled "Mind Change," which argued that digital technology and video games were harming the brains of children.
Now, three of her colleagues, Professor Dorothy Bishop, Dr. Andrew Przybylski and Dr. Vaughan Bell, have published an editorial blasting Greenfield's claims and questioning the basis for them. They argue that Greenfield has done no scientific research of her own on the matter, stating that, "Despite repeated calls for her to publish these claims in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, where clinical researchers can check how well they are supported by evidence, this has not happened."
Greenfield has responded by pointing out that her book, published in 2014, is a compilation of numerous scientific studies and research on the matter and that her claims are being misrepresented. She stated that she does not believe that digital technology actually causes autism but rather triggers it and that she does not feel that regular, normal use of tablets, video games and the like creates brain changes.
"However," Greenfield claims, "intense use of the Internet and video games does indeed lead to changes in the physical brain comparable to drug abuse."
Her colleagues feel that by drawing attention via her high media profile to what they consider to be unproven theories as opposed to scientific facts, Greenfield is diverting attention from the real problem with extensive Internet and video game usage among children, which is lack of physical activity and results in obesity and other detrimental physical conditions.
Greenfield, when questioned further in a recent interview about the attack on her claims, was philosophical.
"Several years ago, many were dismissive of the suggestion that technology could shape the mind," she stated. "Now there appears to be a debate on how, rather than if."
