[sarahmccrum]

Well I for one would rather read a few comments than such a huge long detailed page of script. But I have to say that having scanned the whole page and picked up the key points (I think), it seems to me that the key to the influence on our brains of the internet, or indeed books or any other source of information, is the content itself. I once made a series of radio features for the BBC about children's perceptions of crime. One thing has stayed in my memory - children talking about the impact of watching the news over breakfast. They told me that this left them often shaking with nerves because the focus of the news was so negative - not a good start to the day.

I know that if I start reading lots of bad news when I am feeling really good it has an instant impact on my mood. Recently when I got temporarily gripped by the news about the earthquakes in Christchurch I found myself reacting negatively to completely different things and I couldn't understand why, because I had been feeling really good. It was only the next day, when I went back to the news again and the same thing happened, that I figured out what was going on. This is not because I was worried about the news itself (however shocking it was) but because it was fundamentally bad news, and we react to that emotionally usually without even realising it.

It seems to me that it is more important to focus on what kind of material we spend time on, whether on computers,in books or elsewhere, and consequently what kind of thoughts and feelings we have during the day, rather than whether it is computers themselves that are having the effect. Although sitting looking at a screen all day definitely has an effect on other things like eyesight, so why not the brain too?

As a little aside Bruce Liptom showed that unborn babies experience all the mother's emotions, which sets up many of their main emotional patterns in life. So watch out, mothers-to-be on the internet! You may be affecting your baby's brain.