Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter are giving rise to a generation of self-obsessed people who want constant reassurance from their piers, an expert has warned.

Baroness Greenfield, professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, has claimed that people constantly exposing themselves to social networking platforms have developed an ‘identity crisis’ and crave for attention online.

She claimed that excessive use of social networking platforms and video games could ‘rewire’ the brain. People who depend on social networking platforms for social acceptance can have a reduced concentration span, develop a need for instant gratification and have poor non-verbal skills, like maintaining eye contact during a face-to-face conversation.

“What concerns me is the banality of so much that goes out on Twitter. Why should someone be interested in what someone else has had for breakfast? It reminds me of a small child (saying): “Look at me Mummy, I'm doing this”, “Look at me Mummy I'm doing that”,” Baroness Greenfield said.

'It's almost as if they're in some kind of identity crisis. In a sense it's keeping the brain in a sort of time warp,” she added.

Facebook now has more than 750 million users while Twitter has become an important communication tool for millions of users worldwide.