In the opening chapters of Mind Change, Susan Greenfield is careful to distinguish between a brain and a human mind. Brains are the physical organs that facilitate thought, but minds are the ephemeral products of that thought. Greenfield attempts a fairly complete definition of mind that distinguishes it from consciousness, and that stresses the ability to make connections, the linear development of experiences into ideas, and the personal organization of those experiences that reciprocally leads to more and deeper connections.
For Greenfield, these connections that are essential for the development of a mind are not mere causal or surface observations. Rather, they are metaphorical—she returns often to the example of seeing a candle blown out as analogous to a life being cut short. Since having a mind is a peculiarly and essentially human trait, this ability to learn and think metaphorically, to understand metaphorically, is a crucial one for human beings (at least if Greenfield's definition of mind is anything close to accurate).
Frighteningly, this ability (among others) is gradually being eroded by our use of digital technologies, or at least by our unremitting and often unselfconscious use of them. Part of this is due to a growing attitude toward knowledge as something to be drawn upon as needed in terms of a Google search or comparable Web-based activity—when you can just pull something up on demand, why go to the trouble to memorize it? And, in turn, why spend time reflecting on one's knowledge and practicing one's ability to make connections between ideas and information if it's all already connected for you by the cyber pathways of the Internet?
This is just one example among many. In this eminently helpful book, Greenfield draws on her training and experience as a neuroscientist to examine the hard science behind what the Internet and our use of it is doing to our minds. She focuses primarily on a four main concerns: social media, video games, surfing the Net, and educational technology. Unlike the authors of similar books, she remains clearheaded and fair throughout, never painting a totally bleak picture of the future or failing to mention the good things technology has yielded and continues to yield.
In other words, Greenfield's purpose isn't to terrify or manipulate. While she does offer some pretty strong warnings, especially in the final two chapters, she also manages for the most part to look dispassionately and objectively at her subject. The reader gets the sense that this book was written out of genuine concern for how humans will regard themselves and how they will behave in the coming years of the Digital Age, not to push an agenda or further a particular ideology. By limiting herself to scientific studies, and by explaining each one in sufficient detail, Greenfield avoids the moralizing that often rises to the surface of similar books like cream to be tossed aside.
Still, she does acknowledge the moral concerns at the heart of her subject. Unlike most books about the dangers of the Internet, however, these moral concerns are Internet- and technology-specific, not generalized warnings against the dangers of pornography, etc. Greenfield's moral warnings are more about the rise in aggressive behavior among habitual violent video game players, or the decline in ability to read and understand facial expressions in others as the result of too much Internet-mediated communication. Not until the final chapter does she invoke self-consciously dystopian language, but the themes are woven through every chapter nonetheless.
Two recurrent themes are impulsivity and loss of inhibition. Impulsivity is facilitated by Internet use (especially prolonged or obsessive Internet use) in that users are taught to expect immediate returns on relatively little effort. Swipe right, click the mouse, send a Snapchat—all these are calculated to give immediate pleasure, and if that pleasure is for some reason not forthcoming it can lead to the same kinds of symptoms and nervousness seen in drug addicts needing a fix. Loss of inhibition is related, and means that heavy Internet users can often not be relied on to avoid risky behavior on their own initiative. Loss of these two factors can only mean bad things for society in the future, and while Greenfield avoids making drastic predictions, it's obvious she fears where all this might be heading. (So does Jordan B. Peterson, incidentally, who sees these traits as the perfect recipe for authoritarianism and the subjugation of the populace.)
Mind Change is a wide-ranging book, and not a particularly easy read. Greenfield is a good writer, but she also doesn't attempt to pad her content to make it easier to digest. Her investigations into how Internet use is changing the way our brains operate are fascinating, and seem much more pertinent than, say, those of Nicholas Carr in The Shallows, a book that covers similar ground but from a more philosophical foundation. The image of the Internet user that emerges from these pages isn't 100% bad, but it's far from cheering, too. All those stepping into the brave new mid-21st century would do well to read this book, prepare themselves, and perhaps even reconsider their unquestioning allegiance to and reliance on digital technologies.