Interesting to see a piece in The Times about a research study conducted by the University of California, San Diego, saying that traits such as compassion and tolerance are hard wired into the human brain. I’m not so sure about this.

There was another study reported on this week from the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute claiming that whilst one person can instantly register another person’s fear or pain it takes much longer for responses such as compassion or empathy to develop.

But here’s the really good bit. According to these researchers, our digital age could be robbing us of such emotions. Why? Because information overload, caused by the likes of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace etc, is creating too much competition for what is ultimately a finite amount of attention.

In other words, when we are being constantly screamed at by a variety of digital devices we withdraw and stop thinking about others. It’s a bit of stretch to blame technology for a decline in civility but it might not be too far off.