By Our Correspondent
Nigeria’s award-winning novelist and feminist icon, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has raised alarm over the harmful effects of social media and artificial intelligence, warning that they are reshaping human behaviour and eroding the ability to concentrate.
Speaking on the impact of digital culture, Adichie contrasted literature with social media, stressing that while books deepen focus and expand thought, digital platforms do the exact opposite.
“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 acclaimed author expressed concern about the declining number of people who truly value literature, urging renewed efforts to preserve reading culture in the face of mounting digital distractions.
Adichie also condemned society’s uncritical embrace of technology, especially social media and AI, insisting that such innovations must be subjected to scrutiny rather than accepted blindly.
“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.
While acknowledging AI’s vast potential, Adichie cautioned that without careful management, its dangers could lead to disastrous consequences.
