I was thinking about my friend who, in her 30’s, just got her first cellphone (a smartphone at that!) and the role that technology plays in in modern interactions. I know a lot of the people I know have very young kids with phones, the reason being to make sure that parents can reach these kids at any time. My instinct is to suggest that I had no such tech advantage as a kid and managed to avoid being kidnapped or lost. It took me a while to realize that safety isn’t the real point at all. Cellphones, smartphones in particular, represent windows into a digital world that serves as the primary source of interaction for teenagers and pre-teens too nervous, shy, or wrapped up in self-doubt to connect face to face. Social media is, in a sense, a safe way to reveal yourself to people without having to look in their eyes as you do so.
I probably wouldn’t stand out on a street corner and recite passages from my blog 10 minutes each day. I definitely would spit verse like Myrlin Hepworth at any and every possible venue striving to be heard by the masses. The digital divide that exists between myself and the rest of the world allows me to put out my thoughts without having to read peoples faces and reactions to tell if they appreciate what’s being said. Moreover, if people do appreciate it they tend to leave a like or a little note to remind me that I don’t suck all the time. Now this cuts both ways. Social media can be a relentless assault on someone’s sense of being. I’ve heard a dozen stories this year alone of kids being driven to suicide because of what is said about them on social media.
My point is this: The net is merely a tool we need to interact with now as a baseline–like the wheel. The more I fight against kids having the tech, the more I’m fighting against kids learning how to be a part of the world they live in.