I'm Not Making Any Friends, Either.

I really want to dismiss this out of hand. But I cannot entirely disagree with Save the Children's statements, though there is no real methodology to the conclusions they draw. The gist of their study being that since kids are given more things that are insulating (ie: video games, ipods, TV) to the outside world, they don't interact as much as they could or should with others and it retards their ability to make friends or deal with people. Now, mind this was determined via a survey of primary (in the colonies we call it elementary) school teachers.

This is where I agree and disagree. Children don't find these insulating devices and pastimes on the ground. I'm pretty sure in most first world countries they cannot go ahead and get a job down at the textile mill to buy these things themselves. You get where I'm going with this? Don't think I'm singling parents out, either. I'm looking square at you too, primary school teachers and staff.

Here's the trick... As children, they are in our care. Ready yourselves for some Hillary Clinton style bullshit right here: it takes a village to raise a child. There, I said it. Especially in this day and age where people are increasingly busy and insulated from the surrounding world.

Technology is no more evil than a rock or a tree. It all comes down to how you use it. The problem here is that parents are just giving their kids these implements and turning them loose into the world. Once loosed upon us, they become our problem. When they are herded into a school that I as a taxpayer paid for, they become society's problem. Schools should be largely gadgetry free. You step into those buildings and that shit gets shut off. Anything else gets confiscated until either the end of day or until the parent can come on in and get it back.

Like everything else that some application of technology gets blamed on, this comes back to the human animal. Kids don't need less technology (they probably do, but that's an argument for another post), they need to be taught how to use it and deal with it, and when to turn it off.