Following on from my post a couple of days ago on teens and social media, I wanted to post this highly eloquent response to some of Susan Greenfield’s remarks about social media and society.  It’s from Francisco of the YouTube collab channel Fellowship of the Ning, and directly addresses the 2009 Guardian article “Facebook and Bebo risk ‘infantilising’ the human mind”, in which Greenfield expresses her concerns.

The video adds to the series of videos I posted on August 24 from other members of this on-line group.

Francisco responds to seven points made by Susan Greenfield in the article:

  1. The allure of immediacy (link here)
  2. Similarities between social media use and drug addiction (link here)
  3. Social media and declining literacy (link here)
  4. Erosion of identity (link here)
  5. Immersion in a 2-dimensional world (link here)
  6. The risk of loss of empathy (link here)
  7. Social media and mind-change (link here)

Some of my favorite quotes:

“If you understand the true nature of stories, you know that books are nothing but one of the many ways of telling them”

“Social media … humanizes us”

“Imagine if man’s mind could change because of social media.  Imagine if it could broaden our horizons, and change the parameters we move in. Imagine if it could lead to progress. I know – that’s a scary thought!”