• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 26, 2011

I don't think I focused enough on Faith Popcorn's belief that human DNA is being changed because of media. I say that, because the impact media has on human evolution is one of my favorite subjects, but for all the scientists I've spoken to so far, none has agreed with the notion that media has had any impact on our physiological evolution.

But Popcorn, who is not a scientist per se, is convinced that it's happening, and she cited the addition young media consumers have to digital media, particularly pornography, and text messaging, as an indication that they are adapting not just culturally, but physiologically.

"That is definitely DNA change," she asserted, adding, "There's going to be a whole psychiatric practice about this."

Another reason why I'm fascinated by Popcorn's "media DNA" rant is that it was part of the focus of the next issue of MEDIA magazine, the one guest edited by Brian Monahan, head of Interpublic's Magna Global unit. We couldn't prove the physiological adaptation, but we made a strong case for cultural evolution changing because of media. And as we all know, culture can sometimes have a profound affect on our physiology, including the creation of media that causes us to do all sorts of physical things, like texting, looking at porn, or as Popcorn would say, whatever the next big media addition is.