Reflection
The Screen Dilemma
The McCrindle Research paper on the future of education made some interesting reflections on navigating student wellbeing. It suggested that while students believe the high pressure to do well in exams and assessments is the top challenge for today’s students, navigating their own mental wellbeing and navigating loneliness and isolation are also key challenges.
This is particularly so in relation to screen and digital technology. The McCrindle Research informs us that more than four in five students agree they struggle with spending too much time on screens and technology. Furthermore, two in three agree social media is having a negative impact on their mental health. Part of the challenge is that social media and the digital realm is the key to facilitating connection with others and awareness of events for today’s students. Amazingly, three in four want to leave social media but stand firm because they would miss out on knowing what is happening around them.
While the digital world and social media is one that older generations have come to know and hopefully integrate into their lives, this is the only world that many of today’s students have known. Their relational world and sense of connection has been built through the online medium more than any generation before them.
The documentary The Social Dilemma examines how social media's design nurtures addiction to maximize profit and its ability to manipulate people’s views, emotions and behaviour. It explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with technology experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. It suggests that never before have a handful of tech designers had such control over the way billions of us think, act, and live our lives.
I would encourage parents concerned with their son’s social media usage to watch the documentary as a cue for discussion on their daily use. Clearly going ‘cold turkey’ is not a solution, but clear boundaries and regular monitoring of use is a good starting position. Turning off notifications, which are designed to distract, is another excellent strategy to resist the tech designers attempts to capture one’s attention. Of course, our own personal use can set an excellent example!
On a side note, I was interested to read the Samuel Smith pub chain has become the first in the UK to ban mobile phones, laptops and tablets. A memo to the managers of its 300 pubs specifies that customers must go outside to receive or make calls, and to 'receive transmitted pictures of sport or download movies'. The brewery’s policy is that ‘our pubs are for social conversation person to person,’ said the memo.
