Have Our Brains Caused Facebook Addiction?

An expert claims that human brains have evolved over thousands of years "to make us addicted to Facebook and Twitter."

16:48 08 March 2016

Professor Bruce Hood, an award-winning American psychologist said that we are addicted to social media because our brains have evolved over millennia to be that way. He explained that the amount of grey matter in our heads has increased tremendously and that our brains began shrinking about 20,000 years ago.

 

He said: “The fact that many people have a compulsion to engage with lots of people via social media isn't really that surprising.”

 

"Our brains have evolved for us to be social animals."

 

He added: "What's interesting is that you might assume that the wider exposure to differing views that social media brings would make us all much more open-minded.

 

"What we see in reality of course is the opposite. People seem more likely to slot into niche groups of thought online than in real life."

 

His latest book entitled Domesticated Brain, he claims that human brain began to shrink when our ancestors began farming and abandoned hunting.