19 November 2014
University of Oxford neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield will discuss whether digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains at a public lecture at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre tonight.
Baroness Greenfield has gained international attention for expressing concern that modern technology, especially social networking sites and video games, may have an unprecedented impact on child development.
She will use tonight’s booked-out lecture at City West Campus to argue that a new era of ‘mind change’ should be recognised.
Hawke Centre Executive Director Jacinta Thompson says there has been tremendous interest in Baroness Greenfield’s lecture, off the back of her new book, ‘Mind Change’, published in August.
“In this lecture, Baroness Greenfield will ask us to consider a world that was unimaginable only a few decades ago: a place where instant information, ever-expanding connections and vibrant experiences out-compete reality; and ask some challenging questions about the effects of this new environment on the human brain,” Thompson says.
“Just as climate change is recognised a global phenomenon, she argues that we should recognise a new era of Mind Change and that ‘what we decide to do about it, is surely the most far reaching and exciting challenge of our time.”
Baroness Greenfield says her book ‘Mind Change’ discusses the “all-pervading technologies that now surround us, and from which we derive instant information, connected identity, diminished privacy and exceptionally vivid here-and-now experiences”.
“In my view, they are creating a new environment, with vast implications, because our minds are being physically adapted: being rewired,” she says.
“What could this mean, and how can we harness, rather than be harnessed by, our new technological mileu to create better alternatives and more meaningful lives? Mind Change is intended to incite debate as well as yield the way forward.”
WHO: Baroness Susan Greenfield
WHAT: Mind change: how digital technologies are leaving their mark on our brains
WHEN: Wednesday November 19, 6pm
WHERE: Allan Scott Auditorium, Hawke Building, UniSA City West Campus
For more information about this event, click here.
Media contact: Kelly Stone office 8302 0963 mobile 0417 861 832 email Kelly.stone@unisa.edu.au
