https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170123151411.htm
from http://twitter.com/nigelchpainting
via IFTTT
“Online media use such as social networking and gaming could be strongly influenced by our genes, according to a new study by researchers from King’s College London.”
“Professor Robert Plomin, senior author from the IoPPN at King’s College London, said: ‘The key component of this gene-environment correlation is choice, such that individuals are not simply passive recipients of their environment but instead actively select their experiences and these selections are correlated with their genetic propensities.'”
As Knox, J, outlined in the pre-reading for this course “The humanist foundation of education severely limits our understanding of technology, precisely because the essence of the human subject is preserved as a bounded entity, entirely separate from the outside world of objects: technologies, environments,and other “nonhuman” things.” This news story brings an interesting dimension to the dichotomy between whether “human agency drives technological change” (social determinism) or “digital devices define and govern how people use them” (technological determinism). It suggests that the former is more likely and is, at least in part, due to genetic predisposition.
Given the prevalence of digital and digital social interaction in education this research could have wider implications for those of use working in this field.