Renowned Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has voiced concerns about the growing dominance of social media, stressing that it can never replace the value of literature.
Speaking on the impact of digital culture, Adichie argued that while literature expands focus and deepens thought, social media does the opposite by rewiring the brain and weakening people’s ability to concentrate.
“The thing social media can never do for us that literature does for us… it’s actually quite bad for our brains. It’s rewiring our brains and compressing our ability to focus. Literature does the opposite,” she said.
The award-winning novelist acknowledged that some people will always read, but expressed worry that fewer individuals today seem to care deeply about literature. She urged for renewed efforts to preserve the culture of reading despite the distractions of the digital age.
Adichie further criticized society’s uncritical embrace of new technologies such as social media and artificial intelligence, stressing that these developments must be questioned rather than blindly accepted.
“There is a kind of unquestioning acceptance of social technologies that surprises me. We should question more social media, AI. The few people deciding how our future as human beings should be is troubling. This is the time to question AI, because we haven’t even reached a global consensus on what it is supposed to do,” she warned.
Highlighting the potential risks, Adichie noted that while AI holds vast possibilities, it also poses dangers that could lead to disaster if not carefully managed.
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