It was not that long ago that high schools had “student smoking sections” — in my part of the US, this was a thing until the 1980s. Today, we would find such an idea ridiculous. I predict the next generation of parents will view their kids having unfettered access to smartphones as equally absurd. Gen Z and younger Millennial parents will be intensely protective of their children’s privacy. They’ll also know firsthand the perils of giving a 12-year-old a button that broadcasts to the entire planet. This was not something my cohort of parents understood as well 12 years ago. I don’t think there’ll be a complete Luddite U-turn, but I do think future generations of parents will be better equipped to handle — and more cognizant of the need to handle — the challenges of their kids living in a smartphone-enabled world.
Good point. We keep having to fix the plane while it's in the air and figure it out as we go along. The age of mass social media sharing is over, which hopefully benefits our kids.
Is Uri Berliner going over to the dark side yet another sign of rapidly approaching the End Times?
With Israel and Iran now in a hot war we seem to be about to have a moment in history. I’m reminded of a book from the 1970s I found on the shelves of a friend’s mother called The Late Great Planet Earth which purported to decipher scripture and concluded that the end times would kick off with a war between Israel and Russia/Soviet Union. Is that the West v. the Axis of Evil and China’s opportunity to take Taiwan (only after jiggling the electrode they have planted in North Korea to start some $4!+)? I suppose it's no less of a probability than California joining Texas in rebellion but as long as you’ve secured your spot in Vault 31 or 33 it will be OK? Maybe I should spend more time on social media and less on books, movies and streaming?
That might be the scariest news of all. I co-founded a non-profit with a climate scientist who discovered that the ocean, which holds more than 90% of the releasable carbon in the world, takes thousands of years to recover from rapid warming periods like the one we're currently in. The warmer the ocean, the more carbon is released back into the atmosphere where in cooler times the ocean absorbs carbon. It's one of the tipping points that Greta Thunberg refers to. Note: I am not a climate scientist, this is my lay understanding of my co-founders work that she summarized here: https://www.thestranger.com/science/2017/10/27/25525795/ocean-mud-ocean-burping-and-why-climate-could-change-abruptly
Excellent piece. I appreciate when writers/thinkers don’t pretend to have all the answers.
Common sense (mine, anyway) tells me that our overindulgence in screen time is not healthy. But that doesn’t mean it’s catastrophic. It’s too important, and helpful, and clearly not going away, so better for us to moderate our usage. Our individual and collective mental health is affected by many societal factors and it’s possible the “delivery mechanism” isn’t the primary cause.
As far as the NPR nonsense, I’d say we should focus more on the work product rather than the employee demographics. If they’re telling fair, honest, and compelling stories then I’m not all that concerned about their political makeup. A one-off, poorly considered argument doesn’t convince me of anything.
Certainly it feels anecdotally true that these screens are like crack. Why don't the kids read more books? Screens. Why don't the kids spend more time outside? Screens. Seems obvious! My daughter, aged 11, thinks I cannot see nuance when it comes to screentime and that I "blame everything" on screens, such that my kneejerk responses to behavior that I simply don't like, e.g. being mean to her sister, will result in me taking away her screens. So even though I want to remember the nuance and wait on regulating these devices at a societal level, I have to do a much more thoughtful job with how I regard them in my own home!
It was not that long ago that high schools had “student smoking sections” — in my part of the US, this was a thing until the 1980s. Today, we would find such an idea ridiculous. I predict the next generation of parents will view their kids having unfettered access to smartphones as equally absurd. Gen Z and younger Millennial parents will be intensely protective of their children’s privacy. They’ll also know firsthand the perils of giving a 12-year-old a button that broadcasts to the entire planet. This was not something my cohort of parents understood as well 12 years ago. I don’t think there’ll be a complete Luddite U-turn, but I do think future generations of parents will be better equipped to handle — and more cognizant of the need to handle — the challenges of their kids living in a smartphone-enabled world.
Good point. We keep having to fix the plane while it's in the air and figure it out as we go along. The age of mass social media sharing is over, which hopefully benefits our kids.
Is Uri Berliner going over to the dark side yet another sign of rapidly approaching the End Times?
With Israel and Iran now in a hot war we seem to be about to have a moment in history. I’m reminded of a book from the 1970s I found on the shelves of a friend’s mother called The Late Great Planet Earth which purported to decipher scripture and concluded that the end times would kick off with a war between Israel and Russia/Soviet Union. Is that the West v. the Axis of Evil and China’s opportunity to take Taiwan (only after jiggling the electrode they have planted in North Korea to start some $4!+)? I suppose it's no less of a probability than California joining Texas in rebellion but as long as you’ve secured your spot in Vault 31 or 33 it will be OK? Maybe I should spend more time on social media and less on books, movies and streaming?
I tell ya, with the latest coral reef news, it does seem like end times.
That might be the scariest news of all. I co-founded a non-profit with a climate scientist who discovered that the ocean, which holds more than 90% of the releasable carbon in the world, takes thousands of years to recover from rapid warming periods like the one we're currently in. The warmer the ocean, the more carbon is released back into the atmosphere where in cooler times the ocean absorbs carbon. It's one of the tipping points that Greta Thunberg refers to. Note: I am not a climate scientist, this is my lay understanding of my co-founders work that she summarized here: https://www.thestranger.com/science/2017/10/27/25525795/ocean-mud-ocean-burping-and-why-climate-could-change-abruptly
Excellent piece. I appreciate when writers/thinkers don’t pretend to have all the answers.
Common sense (mine, anyway) tells me that our overindulgence in screen time is not healthy. But that doesn’t mean it’s catastrophic. It’s too important, and helpful, and clearly not going away, so better for us to moderate our usage. Our individual and collective mental health is affected by many societal factors and it’s possible the “delivery mechanism” isn’t the primary cause.
As far as the NPR nonsense, I’d say we should focus more on the work product rather than the employee demographics. If they’re telling fair, honest, and compelling stories then I’m not all that concerned about their political makeup. A one-off, poorly considered argument doesn’t convince me of anything.
Certainly it feels anecdotally true that these screens are like crack. Why don't the kids read more books? Screens. Why don't the kids spend more time outside? Screens. Seems obvious! My daughter, aged 11, thinks I cannot see nuance when it comes to screentime and that I "blame everything" on screens, such that my kneejerk responses to behavior that I simply don't like, e.g. being mean to her sister, will result in me taking away her screens. So even though I want to remember the nuance and wait on regulating these devices at a societal level, I have to do a much more thoughtful job with how I regard them in my own home!