On LBC radio yesterday, one of their presenters seriously asked “Are mobile phones now more dangerous than smoking?”
I was just drawing attention to the way people join in the hysteria about stuff like this. I grew up when it was illegal to own a copy The Evil Dead on video because it was a “video nasty” and would corrupt minds and lead to the fall of civilisation. I’ve lived through similar hysterics about heavy metal, hiphop, video games and hoodies.
(My son’s secondary school HAS banned ereaders and restricts computers to local apps without internet access at all.)
Ah okay, that does make your point a little clearer tbf. I agree a lot of it is hysteria, and it exists purely in the vaccum of ignorance which could be solved with a bit more wisdom.
That said, I work in tech and there’s a bit more to this one. I don’t think it should involve not having access to a phone at all, and it shouldn’t impact a parents ability to get in contact with their child after school for example, but a lot of apps on phones do cause real harm to developing brains and because a lot of parents simply aren’t being responsible enough in guiding their children’s relationship with technology, I at least somewhat understand why schools are doing something. I don’t think preventing kids from feeding an addiction to instagram at lunchtime is anything but a good thing.
I think banning e-readers is beyond ridiculous though, as is preventing any kind of internet connection instead of using allowlists for things like wikipedia and whatnot. That’s lazy and also prevents developing a good relationshii with the internet.
On LBC radio yesterday, one of their presenters seriously asked “Are mobile phones now more dangerous than smoking?”
I was just drawing attention to the way people join in the hysteria about stuff like this. I grew up when it was illegal to own a copy The Evil Dead on video because it was a “video nasty” and would corrupt minds and lead to the fall of civilisation. I’ve lived through similar hysterics about heavy metal, hiphop, video games and hoodies.
(My son’s secondary school HAS banned ereaders and restricts computers to local apps without internet access at all.)
Ah okay, that does make your point a little clearer tbf. I agree a lot of it is hysteria, and it exists purely in the vaccum of ignorance which could be solved with a bit more wisdom.
That said, I work in tech and there’s a bit more to this one. I don’t think it should involve not having access to a phone at all, and it shouldn’t impact a parents ability to get in contact with their child after school for example, but a lot of apps on phones do cause real harm to developing brains and because a lot of parents simply aren’t being responsible enough in guiding their children’s relationship with technology, I at least somewhat understand why schools are doing something. I don’t think preventing kids from feeding an addiction to instagram at lunchtime is anything but a good thing.
I think banning e-readers is beyond ridiculous though, as is preventing any kind of internet connection instead of using allowlists for things like wikipedia and whatnot. That’s lazy and also prevents developing a good relationshii with the internet.