Facebook makes you intelligent
Boffins with too much time on their hands have come up
with the startling conclusion that while Facebook boosts your IQ, Twitter turns
you into a gibbering idiot.
Dr Tracy Alloway said that using Facebook worked in the
same way as playing video war games and solving Sudoku however
micro-blogging
on ''Twitter'' and watching YouTube were all likely to weaken ''working
memory''. She said that
working memory involves the ability both to remember information and to
use it. At a job interview, a candidate will employ working
memory to match answers to questions in the most impressive way.
Dr Alloway who has a day job at the University of
Stirling in Scotland, has extensively studied working memory and believes it to
be far more important to success and happiness than IQ. Her team has developed a working memory training
programme that greatly increased the performance of slow-learning children aged
11 to 14 at a school in Durham. After eight weeks of ''JungleMemory'' training, the
children saw 10 point improvements in IQ, literacy and numeracy tests.
A number who started off close to the bottom of the class
ended up near the top. She said that video games that involve planning and
strategy, such as those from the Total War series, may also train working
memory, Dr Alloway believes. Of course they are not that great for socialisation
skills but they make you use your working memory,'' she said.
Sudoku also stretched the working memory, as did keeping
up with friends on Facebook, she said. But the ''instant'' nature of texting, Twitter and
YouTube was not healthy for working memory.
"On Twitter you receive an endless stream of information,
but it's also very succinct and does not need to be processed. This
reduces your attention span is being reduced and you're not engaging
your brain and improving nerve connections."
She thinks this is behind Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD) and pointed out hat extensive texting was associated with lower
IQ scores.