At TED2011, social psychologist Philip Zimbardo sounded an alarm about “the demise of guys.” He offered statistics on young mens’ decreasing college enrollment rates, their troubled relationship with society, as well as anecdotes about “a new fear of intimacy.”

Some scientists have challenged Zimbardo’s generalizations about the challenges boys and men are facing as well as his hypothesis, arguing that there is little evidence that male brains have been rewired negatively as a result of overuse of video games or online pornography. Zimbardo disagrees. Meanwhile, other studies have found some support for the hypothesis that this type of content hurts men in particular.

There are important questions to be asked about how a digital environment may affect people, but the evidence that the Internet is leading to the demise of guys is currently inconclusive. If you have further comments or information you feel should be added to this update, please do contact us at contact@ted.com with the subject line “Philip Zimbardo comment.”