Classic case of “If the research doesn’t support your position, lie like a rug.”
“Technology” as a concept? Of course not.
Algorithmically curated, corporate sponsored content promotion inside digital social echo chambers? Absolutely.
What if I told you that this is just how the media treats everything, including whatever moral panic whoever is reading this believes in?
Yes, even that one. No, that one’s not real either. Yes, I know you saw it on TV.
I think one of the key things we need to be teaching our kids about everything from technology to nature is to think for themselves and apply rigor to make sure that they’re not being let down the garden path. In the book I wrote to my son, the first chapter is not about the basics, it’s that he should question everything including and especially me.
It’s the point Douglas Adams was making with this quote:
I’ve come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
- Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
- Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
- Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
This is exactly how these moral panics go. It’s always relative to the world the person grew up in.
“Technology is totally good for kids!”
-A technology blog
deleted by creator
Right, much better to trust the luddites to make tech policy. 🙄
I do agree that the Internet is not inherently harmful, but 1 in 3 girls having a worse body image is not the super minor increase that the article states. That said, we should address it by itself because people feel bad about their bodies from all kinds of different sources, not just the Internet.
What a shock that a moral panic of a new thing was wrong.
Like it was about table top games. And violent video games. And rock and roll. And comic books. And mass adoption of the television. And mass adoption of the radio. And mass adoption of newspaper.
Anytime someone says “this is the worst thing ever invented and it’s harming our youth” always assume it’s wrong until it’s proven otherwise. Otherwise we’d be much much worse off as a society.
so on one side we have the social media news spam in technology and now you are using technology as a synonym… this doesn’t belong here. it would be best to keep it in a social media community.
Turns out it was kids who were bad for kids all along.
