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Just as we now look back with amazement at our blissfully ignorant ancestors who thought that smoking was good for you, or that a suntan was a sign of health, future generations will be shaking their heads at our blithe and all-consuming addiction to the internet. Assuming, that is, that the human race survives long enough to realize that Facebook and Twitter are causing brain damage and turning the population into an army of ADHD-afflicted robots who may very well become incapable of propagating the species. Or so warns neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, who wants us to please, please think of the children.

Everyone's "plasticky" brains are susceptible to changes inflicted by hours upon hours spent communing solely with computers, says Greenfield—in fact, just reading this is probably shrinking your pre-frontal cortex!—but children's still-developing brains will, thanks to social networking sites and computer games, likely become stunted and render them incapable of face-to-face conversation, reading body language, or understanding that, unlike in "Grand Theft Auto," actions have consequences.

"By the middle of this century," she predicts, "our minds might have become infantilised—characterized by short attention spans, an inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity." In other words, we won't be able to tell the difference between regular members of society and the stars of reality TV? That does sound pretty horrifying.

How Facebook addiction is damaging your child's brain: A leading neuroscientist's chilling warning [Daily Mail]