About

#Greenfieldism is a Twitter hashtag that is typically accompanied by the phrasal template "I point to X and I point to Y. That is all." It was inspired by a statement by Baroness Susan Greenfield, an Oxford neuroscientist and former director of the Royal Institution, about the Internet's role in increasing autism.

Origin

Susan Greenfield has claimed that the Internet and video games have been physically changing human brains, but is frequently criticized for having little to no evidence to back up her hypotheses. On August 3rd, 2011, she stated that digital technology may be leading to an increase in autism when challenged to provide evidence in an interview with New Scientist.^[4]

On August 6th, 2011, The Guardian^[1] published an interview where she attempted to defend herself in the following quote:

"I point to the increase in autism and I point to internet use. That's all.

The same day the interview was published, science writer Carl Zimmer parodied the quotation in the following tweet:

I point to the increase in esophageal cancer and I point to The Brady Bunch. That's all. #greenfieldismless than a minute ago via Twitter for Mac

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Carl Zimmer posted about how he started the #greenfieldism hashtag in the Discover Magazine Blog^[2] on August 8th, 2011. Jed Oliver posted a collection of #greenfieldism tweets to BuzzFeed^[3] on August 9th.

The single serving site Greenfieldism.com^[4] was created on August 9th, and features a live Twitter stream of the latest #greenfieldism tweets.

On Twitter

External References

^[1] Guardian – Research linking autism to internet use is criticised

^[2] Discover Magazine Blog – Greenfieldism

^[3] BuzzFeed – #greenfieldism

^[4] New Scientist – Susan Greenfield: Living online is changing our brains

^[4] Greenfieldism.com