Will facebook create an generation of grown infants?

According to the British newspaper The Guardian there are increasing voices of fear that the "Facebook" generation will remain in a perpetual state of infancy.

In particular one "Lady Greenfield, professor of synaptic pharmacology at Lincoln college, Oxford, and director of the Royal Institution," (Guardian), fears that children reared on Facebook - and other social networks - will have attention deficit disorders and social problems. Such Children, she fears, will be unable to connect with reality, essentially living in a cyberworld of instant gratification and superficial socializing.

Importantly, Lady Greenfield has no scientific studies to back this up. Her claim is conjecture, speculation, and is not backed by empirical evidence. It reminds me of claims 15 or 20 years back about video games. Critics said they would ruin our children's since of reality, destroy their attention span, and lower their intelligence.

It is not clear that such horrid evils befell the video game generation, and it remains to be seen if the Facebook generation will be as ruined as Greenfield fears. Nevertheless, one wonders what the long terem effects will be of a generation raised on the web. Facebook, Instant messaging, blackberry: we are constantly tuned in. But are we, as a consequence, also tuned out of what really matters? It is certainly worth looking into.