Event overview
2014 is the year that the World Wide Web turned 25. It’s now an adult, as are the generation who grew up alongside it. We are digitally older, but are we happier and psychologically healthier for it?
As befits a quarter-life existential crisis, we are beginning to wonder what is going on with us: What is the use of sites such as Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter doing to our social relationships and sense of self? How is ‘browsing’ and information ‘surfing’ rewiring our brains, and is it for good or for ill psychologically?
There are of course huge benefits that as active users of the internet we enjoy daily. The internet enables us to connect with a whole variety of people at any moment, day or night, sharing experiences and perhaps even forging relationships. Information is at our fingertips and thumbs, and communication channels and social networks have been massively widened. All this is celebrated as ‘free’, but is there a hidden price to pay?
Paradoxically, emerging evidence is suggesting that the web can also make us feel more lonely, depressed and vulnerable, contributing to broader social fragmentation and increasing psychological distress. What is the overall effect on our mental health and wellbeing? How can we make the most of what the internet has to offer while untangling ourselves from the web’s unsolicited mind snares?
Goldsmiths RE:mind is hosting a public debate about the impact of the internet, including social media, on our mental health and invites you to join these five leading thinkers for a lively discussion with Q&A on Wednesday 26th November, 6.30 – 8.30pm:
**This event is kindly being supported by the Goldsmiths Departments of Media & Communications and Sociology. Big Thanks!**
ON THE PANEL:
DR. HENRIETTA BOWDEN-JONES - medical doctor and neuroscience researcher working as Consultant Psychiatrist in Addictions and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Brain Science at Imperial College. She runs the only NHS Problem Gambling clinic in the UK as well as having extensive experience of treating Internet Addiction disorders. Henrietta belongs to the ICCAM (Imperial, Cambridge, Manchester) neuroscience research group funded by the Medical Resarch Council to develop effective treatment for all addictions. She is the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ spokesperson on Behavioural Addictions (and Problem Gambling) and regularly lecture on Internet Addiction and its treatment, including giving a TED lecture on her work in Addictions.
PROF. STEFANA BROADBENT – Formerly Director of the Digital Anthropology MSc within the Department of Anthropology at UCL, Stefana Broadbent is now Head of Collective Intelligence at Nesta. She has researched and written about how the internet enables greater human intimacy, including chapters in the The Onlife Manifesto (2014) and Digital Anthropology (2012) and her book L’intimite au Travail (2011) which received the AFCI prize for Social Sciences. She has also given a TEDtalk on the subject in 2009. Prior to this, she was Research Director at Swisscom, where she ran The Observatory of Digital Life to advise the company’s strategy on converging media. Previously she was Chief Officer of Human Interaction at IconMedialab/LBi.
BARONESS BEEBAN KIDRON OBE – Director of Cross Street Films and British Film Director (Oranges are Not the Only Fruit; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), including the documentary film In Real Life, which explores the effect of social media on young people’s relationships. Among many other roles within the arts and voluntary sectors, she is also the Founder of the campaign coalition behind iRights which seeks to extend the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into the digital domain so that they can access the internet creatively, knowledgeably and fearlessly.
CHRIS O'SULLIVAN – Policy Development Manager, Mental Health Foundation, Scotland. Chris led SUPPORT at the Scottish Development Centre, an EU Public Health Programme Project developing an EU wide approach to public mental health. Before this, Chris worked for ‘see me’, Scotland’s national anti-stigma campaign, for Bipolar Scotland and for the National Union of Students. Until December 2012, Chris served as Chair of Trustees for Action on Depression. Chris has a longstanding interest in technology and mental health, and is currently working with The Scottish Government on a major technology project to support people to self-manage distress.
CHAIR:
STEVE BROOME – Director of Research, Royal Society of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce. Author of What’s Normal Anyway? Celebrities’ Own Experience of Mental Illness (2014). Steve leads the Connected Communities team at the RSA, an action research programme that explores ‘social network’ approaches to social and economic challenges and opportunities.
See you there! Please share and invite interested friends and contacts. *Please note that places for this event will be given on a first come first served basis. Please arrive on time to avoid disappointment!
To follow us on twitter: @GsmithsREmind
See our website: http://www.goldsmithsremind.com
www.goldsmithsremind.com/events
Dates & times
Date | Time | Add to calendar |
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26 Nov 2014 | 6:30pm - 8:30pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.