Users of micro-blogging website Twitter could be damaging their memory, a leading psychologist has claimed.
Dr Tracy Alloway, a psychologist from Stirling University in the UK, made the comments during the British Science Festival at the University of Surrey.
Twitter is supposedly bad for the brain as it produces a constant stream of updates which do not allow users to totally engage with what they are reading.
The scientist criticized YouTube for similar reasons and suggested that the clips and video snippets available on the website could also be harmful to the attention span.
Dr Alloway said that children who watch YouTube are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.
However, the scientist was more positive about another social networking website, Facebook.
"Social networking websites like Facebook might help working memory because when we use them we feel more part of a larger community," she explained to ITPro.co.uk.
Meanwhile, Mean Girls star Lindsey Lohan has become the latest celebrity to hit the headlines via Twitter after posting photos of herself made up as a vampire in homage to her favourite television show, True Blood.