zombie culture
I read an article yesterday about digital detox now being an idea that is so out of sync with society that it is almost useless. I read this article as I wanted to know why the theme was so out of tune with what I have found in the boarding house.
I am planning on running my second digital detox day in the boarding house soon and so was interested to find out why it is now considered 'pointless'. However, I was pleased to hear that I had been lured in by a headline and not the actual point of the article (clickbait).
The article as actually about the number of Alexas and google devices that are now prevalent in peoples' homes and how they are being seen as a way to make tech seamless in our lives.
The idea is that Alexa and Chrome devices can mean that we are using tech without it creating a barrier in our lives. The article is about future development removing screens and even having mini projector devices that allow us to be screen free at home until we need a screen to appear - all these ideas sound perfect for a boarding house.
What the article then goes on to say is that the enemy of this development is the phone. The screen that still dominates our lives is the one element that does not fit this new culture and is, for me, still the greatest barrier to a positive and universally healthy atmosphere in the boarding house.
On returning from Christmas, pupils have again found their phone to be their closest friend. Prior to Christmas, I would enter a room and only a couple of boys would have phone out - post Christmas and the majority of the boys were glued to their screens as I walked in.
This reminded me of when I went to watch the new Mary Poppins with my children over the holiday. We went to the lovely Regal Cinema in Evesham where you can enjoy a meal before your film and sit in spinning cushioned theatre seats whilst enjoying the film itself. This is my favourite cinema but the film was spoiled by various seats in front of me being illuminated throughout the whole show by their phone screens. There were children and adults who could not switch off their own phones for just two hours whilst watching an entertaining film. The zombie culture that I have used to title this blog is underlined by this cinema experience; people glued to their screens, watching the world through the filter of instagram rather than with their own two eyes has even spread to the cinema.
A new app that was highlighted by the Headmaster of Dean Close school (Hold) allows people to gain credits by staying off their phones for extended periods of time. Several pupils in my boarding house have signed up to this app and are earning rewards like free popcorn.
However, one option is to click the app when you enter the cinema. The app understands that people now find it hard to concentrate on a film for a couple of hours.
on Saturday, in House, we sat to watch Blakklansman. This is a fantastic film that highlights the civil rights movement in the USA and one black policeman's task in infiltrating the Klu klux klan. A brilliant film in my humble option but several boys left as it was 'too slow for them' and another spent over an hour on instagram whilst the film was on. I must also highlight that nearly 40 boys sat through the whole film and some even thanked me for picking a film that they would not normally pick (I don't want to taint all pupils with the same negative brush).
However, what is key is that the modern trend of instant likes, instant responses and quick attention seeking posts mean that long term, slow films are not normal for teenagers and their instagram culture.
Another worrying headline from over the holiday was the fact that students being taught medicine at university at present are being told that screen time is not bad for peoples' health. This news broke over the new year and yet again the quick headlines and click bait online news agencies quickly misread the guidance and produced the headline that screen time is not bad for people.
When I actually read the full article - the report was stating that it is not correct for GPs and doctors to say that long periods of time on screens is bad. I.e. they cannot advise parents to not let their children use screens.
This is only common sense. We are entering a modern world with increasing pressures on jobs and with potential entrepreneurs looking for new areas to advance technology in the workplace. If we are telling parents to keep their children off screens, we are condemning our future generations to not being competitive in the workplace. This is not about time spent on a screen, it is about what they are looking at and again - it is not a doctor's job to supervise a child's internet use.
If the child in question in looking at hours of Instagram and has friends that like to belittle their peers on snapchat then it increases the likelihood that this screen time can accentuate anxiety issues. Girls are 4 times more likely to develop anxiety issues from this type of screen time. However, if the screen use is a mix of healthy hours of Netflix watching, youtube tutorials, reading, online research and contact with friends that are supportive and enjoy each others company - then the screen time is just today's teenagers way of communicating. TVs and landlines are things of the 1990s and 2000s, we cannot place our own expectations on a modern generation, we may as well give them a walkman (although this does not turn out too well in '13 reasons why').
So, in short, there is no danger of me cancelling the next digital detox day. The phone screen is still a danger to the modern boarding house. Screen time may not be instantly condemned by GPs but the type of screen time and appropriateness of screen time is still something that I will be working on with the boys in my house. When a screen is inadvertently saying to the person next to you that they are not as important to you as an inanimate object then that screen time cannot be right. The upcoming detox will be looking at the ways that we use tech, why we use tech and whether it is actively helping us in what we are doing.
Tech cannot be the enemy. The tech genie is out of the bottle and they are not going to go back in. However, we can always look at ways that tech can be the solution and that is most definitely the way forward.
I am planning on running my second digital detox day in the boarding house soon and so was interested to find out why it is now considered 'pointless'. However, I was pleased to hear that I had been lured in by a headline and not the actual point of the article (clickbait).
The article as actually about the number of Alexas and google devices that are now prevalent in peoples' homes and how they are being seen as a way to make tech seamless in our lives.
The idea is that Alexa and Chrome devices can mean that we are using tech without it creating a barrier in our lives. The article is about future development removing screens and even having mini projector devices that allow us to be screen free at home until we need a screen to appear - all these ideas sound perfect for a boarding house.
What the article then goes on to say is that the enemy of this development is the phone. The screen that still dominates our lives is the one element that does not fit this new culture and is, for me, still the greatest barrier to a positive and universally healthy atmosphere in the boarding house.
On returning from Christmas, pupils have again found their phone to be their closest friend. Prior to Christmas, I would enter a room and only a couple of boys would have phone out - post Christmas and the majority of the boys were glued to their screens as I walked in.
This reminded me of when I went to watch the new Mary Poppins with my children over the holiday. We went to the lovely Regal Cinema in Evesham where you can enjoy a meal before your film and sit in spinning cushioned theatre seats whilst enjoying the film itself. This is my favourite cinema but the film was spoiled by various seats in front of me being illuminated throughout the whole show by their phone screens. There were children and adults who could not switch off their own phones for just two hours whilst watching an entertaining film. The zombie culture that I have used to title this blog is underlined by this cinema experience; people glued to their screens, watching the world through the filter of instagram rather than with their own two eyes has even spread to the cinema.
A new app that was highlighted by the Headmaster of Dean Close school (Hold) allows people to gain credits by staying off their phones for extended periods of time. Several pupils in my boarding house have signed up to this app and are earning rewards like free popcorn.
However, one option is to click the app when you enter the cinema. The app understands that people now find it hard to concentrate on a film for a couple of hours.
on Saturday, in House, we sat to watch Blakklansman. This is a fantastic film that highlights the civil rights movement in the USA and one black policeman's task in infiltrating the Klu klux klan. A brilliant film in my humble option but several boys left as it was 'too slow for them' and another spent over an hour on instagram whilst the film was on. I must also highlight that nearly 40 boys sat through the whole film and some even thanked me for picking a film that they would not normally pick (I don't want to taint all pupils with the same negative brush).
However, what is key is that the modern trend of instant likes, instant responses and quick attention seeking posts mean that long term, slow films are not normal for teenagers and their instagram culture.
Another worrying headline from over the holiday was the fact that students being taught medicine at university at present are being told that screen time is not bad for peoples' health. This news broke over the new year and yet again the quick headlines and click bait online news agencies quickly misread the guidance and produced the headline that screen time is not bad for people.
When I actually read the full article - the report was stating that it is not correct for GPs and doctors to say that long periods of time on screens is bad. I.e. they cannot advise parents to not let their children use screens.
This is only common sense. We are entering a modern world with increasing pressures on jobs and with potential entrepreneurs looking for new areas to advance technology in the workplace. If we are telling parents to keep their children off screens, we are condemning our future generations to not being competitive in the workplace. This is not about time spent on a screen, it is about what they are looking at and again - it is not a doctor's job to supervise a child's internet use.
If the child in question in looking at hours of Instagram and has friends that like to belittle their peers on snapchat then it increases the likelihood that this screen time can accentuate anxiety issues. Girls are 4 times more likely to develop anxiety issues from this type of screen time. However, if the screen use is a mix of healthy hours of Netflix watching, youtube tutorials, reading, online research and contact with friends that are supportive and enjoy each others company - then the screen time is just today's teenagers way of communicating. TVs and landlines are things of the 1990s and 2000s, we cannot place our own expectations on a modern generation, we may as well give them a walkman (although this does not turn out too well in '13 reasons why').
So, in short, there is no danger of me cancelling the next digital detox day. The phone screen is still a danger to the modern boarding house. Screen time may not be instantly condemned by GPs but the type of screen time and appropriateness of screen time is still something that I will be working on with the boys in my house. When a screen is inadvertently saying to the person next to you that they are not as important to you as an inanimate object then that screen time cannot be right. The upcoming detox will be looking at the ways that we use tech, why we use tech and whether it is actively helping us in what we are doing.
Tech cannot be the enemy. The tech genie is out of the bottle and they are not going to go back in. However, we can always look at ways that tech can be the solution and that is most definitely the way forward.
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