A Balanced View on what Video Games and the Internet do to Your Brain

Vaughan Bell, who writes the top-shelf science blog Mind Hacks, and is also on faculty at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College, London, made a presentation to Parliament this week on the impact of media technology on the mind and brain (specifically to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Scientific Research in Learning).

He’s been generous enough to let me post a link to his presentation (PowerPoint file) here on Brainspin. The first few slides are examples of recent technology alarmism stories in the press, and after that he discusses the long history of technology fears, followed by a review of the most current research on how video games and Internet use affect the brain. The entire presentation is excellent.

The funny part about this is that right before Vaughan presented, Susan Greenfield–the reigning queen of media technology alarmism in the UK–made her presentation.  I can only imagine how ticked she must have been to go right before the guy who was going to make cornbeef hash out of her half-baked arguments. 

Here is the link to Vaughan’s presentation. (I recommend also reading the notes pages attached to the slides for more information.)