'Needs less shock and more substance': Susan Greenfield's tech claims criticised | Pete Etchells

An editorial published in the BMJ this week makes a welcome call for a calmer and more evidence-based approach to dealing with concerns about how technology affects young people

One of the reasons that I got into science writing was because of Baroness Susan Greenfield. Actually, she's also one of the reasons that I got into video game research as well. In that sense, I guess, I owe a lot to her. In another, more realistic sense, the reason that she acted as a catalyst for those things is because of her regular appearances in the media, claiming that the internet, social media and video games are damaging our brains.

Over the years, Greenfield has appeared in newspaper articles claiming that computer games "leave children with dementia"; that internet use is linked to autism; and that social media harms children's brains. When criticised about the comments, the Baroness has been quick to claim that she's been misrepresented, although no retractions or corrections of pieces like those mentioned above have ever surfaced. A call from Ben Goldacre for Greenfield to publish her claims in a scientific journal, so that they can be placed under an appropriately rigourous level of scrutiny, has been dismissed. Instead, we've had two books - the disastrous science fiction novel 2121, and the equally problematic popular science book, Mind Change. Both advance Greenfield's view that the internet generally, and social media and video games more specifically, are having a huge and negative impact on our brains.