“In 1936, the now cult film Reefer Madness revealed how suicide, rape and murder would ensue if the kids succumbed to the temptation of “marihuana”. When Elvis swivelled his pelvis, parents nearly fainted at the thought of the lust it would stir in their little darlings. In that light, the contemporary fear that we are raising a generation with three-second attention spans who want only stimulation and sensation sounds strangely familiar. However, Greenfield dignifies this anxiety by discussing how ‘screen culture’ threatens to produce ‘Nobodies’.”
Review of ID: the Quest for identity in the 21st Cetnury in the latest FT weekend.