Scientists warn of Twitter dangers

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/mentalhealth/04/14/twitter.study/ind...

New findings show that the streams of information provided by social networking sites are too fast for the brain's "moral compass" to process and could harm young people's emotional development.

Before the brain can fully digest the anguish and suffering of a story, it is being bombarded by the next news bulletin or the latest Twitter update, according to a University of Southern California study.

More reason than ever to limit the amount of time kids sit behind a pc... and for us adults, to make sure we take time to reflect.

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Permalink Reply by Katinka Hesselink on April 14, 2009 at 12:13pm

I've said it before: one of the reasons why meditation is becoming necessary for so many people these days is that we're bombarded with more sensory input than any generation before us. People like us, who grew up before that started are in a very different position from those who did grow up with it - and there's not telling what difference that will make.

To some extent it will balance itself out - many people will find ways of dealing with this stuff, like taking a non-internet break or meditating daily or whatever. The extremes is where the worry needs to be. But that was always the case - only now adults are hardly prepared for the consequences of what their kids are growing up with.