In the September issue of The Atlantic, Jean Twenge has an article titled “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” Despite the hyperbolic title, this article raises some very interesting points of which parents need to be aware. Many of the generational changes that are listed in this article are very familiar to teachers who have worked with students pre- and post-2007 (when the first iPhone was released). Twenge calls students born between 1995 and 2012 iGen. In this article, she identifies some of the positive and negative characteristics of iGen and makes some recommendations regarding how to guard against some of the most dangerous aspects. According to her research, iGen teens are less likely to engage in physically dangerous behavior or drink heavily. However, these same teens are experiencing dramatically increased rates of depression, anxiety, dependency, and suicide. Through her research, Twenge is able to find a link between increased exposure to social media and these unhealthy characteristics of iGen. Although Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 over 60 years ago, long before the invention of the smartphone, this book provides some helpful guidance for dealing with the unhealthy habits of screen-culture. Similarly to iGen, almost all of the characters in the book passively receive entertainment and information by staring at screens all day. Only the screens of Fahrenheit 451 are large room-sized screens rather than small pocket-sized screens that fit in pockets and lay on nightstands. In Fahrenheit 451 all the houses are fire proof and the firemen exist to burn books. The main character is a fireman named Guy Montag. Despite the fact that he is a fireman, Montag manages to get hold of a Bible and some other books that he decides to keep. Eventually, he is discovered and forced to hide and run. While he is on the run he develops a friendship with a man named Faber. This friend is older and wiser than Montag and he teaches Montag that three things are missing from the book burning world of Fahrenheit 451. These three things are “quality of information . . . leisure to digest it . . . [and] the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two.” It would take a lot of words to unpack all of this and relate it to young students and screen-culture, but I just want to take a couple more paragraphs and talk about the idea of leisure. In Twenge’s article on iGen she mentions that because teens today have delayed adolescence and continue to live in a period of childhood for a longer period of time, they have more leisure time than previous generations. The benefit of Bradbury’s insight in Fahrenheit 451 is that it helps us to make a distinction between leisure and entertainment. Entertainment is being provided with amusement while leisure refers to opportunity afforded by free time to do something. In short, leisure is active and entertainment is passive. Although students today have more leisure time than previous generations they have chosen to use this time poorly in pursuit of entertainment through screens and social media. One of the best things, we can do for our children and students is to encourage them to engage in the activity of leisure. This activity involves more than passive reception from a screen; leisure requires engagement. Encourage your children to develop hobbies. Help them learn how to read books well, ride bikes, go camping, paint, express their ideas in writing, learn a sport, exercise, play an instrument, dance, or almost any other activity that requires the sustained crafting of skill. All of these hobbies are fun, but they also all require activity. Screen culture has traded leisure for entertainment. Help your children build character by learning to love quality of information and giving them the leisure to digest it.
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AuthorAs principal of Midway Covenant Christian School, I've designed this blog to give insight and guidance to our school family. ArchivesCategories |