On: Technology

I am writing this post on a small laptop-come-tablet, and you will read this on flickering screens of various sizes, which you will pull from your pocket or bag in a café, on the train, on the settee. There are some authors for whom the act of handwriting produces the art of literature: Stephen King, J K Rowling, George R R Martin, J M MacKenzie (aka “dad”). I am, clearly, not one of those greats.

While I write this, I am covering a lesson in a different department at School and have been struck by the reliance on – and lack of reliability of – technology. I did battle with the projector for 10 minutes at the start of the lesson, trying to cast from screen to screen, so that the pupils could watch a video about debates surrounding the existence of God (guess which subject I am covering). Casting screens seems akin to casting spells – conjuring up formulae and wishing beyond hope that the tech gods will bless us with the power and magic to conduct the lesson. It seems I am out of favour with the digital deities for, alas, no success. What ensued, however, was a swift return to the classes of old – pupils head-down in textbooks, writing notes in jotters. Normal service had resumed.

There is much for which to be thankful when it comes to our technological advances. In the classroom, pupils have access to an infinite wealth of information at the click of a button, we can engage in a range of teaching styles to accommodate differing learning needs, and we can organise work and set assessments centrally and easily. Pastorally, technology allows us to engage with our pupils’ welfare concerns by using simple tools such as AS Tracking or Skodel. Entertainment has been revolutionised by immediate access to films and games through a range of apps and sites, and it is easier to communicate and keep in touch now than it has ever been through video calling and social media.

Ah, social media. Aye, there’s the rub. As with Schrödinger’s cat, simultaneously alive and dead until the lid is lifted and the truth revealed, so does social media offer both a lifeline to a wider community and information, and death to physical interaction and self-esteem.

Those of us who are caregivers as parents or in a boarding setting find ourselves wrestling with the digital conundrum: how do we harness the benefits of technology whilst protecting our children? Social media is the biggie. It brings many benefits for children – e.g. keeping in touch with family and friends (often even more important when at a distance from them at boarding school), and access to videos and TikToks to learn new skills from makeup application to how to master a Rubik’s cube. However, it also opens up children to inappropriate and harmful content, brings challenges for self-image and self-esteem, and can encourage isolation and introspection. Indeed, the NSPCC mentions just one sentence of benefits social media can bring our children, compared with six sections on potential risks.

So, where do we draw the line? Should we restrict children’s access to technology, the online world and social media in order to protect them? If we do so, how do we successfully educate our young people to navigate their way through the metaverse carefully and safely, making informed decisions for themselves about which content to access and for how much time?

I think the first thing we must do is recognise that we are ancient, out-of-touch adults. The medium of communication has changed drastically since I was a teenager back in about 1742. I remember my first phone – a BT Cellnet with a tiny aerial on it and a green screen. Texts were few and far between (largely because they took abut half an hour to type – 44-33-555-555-666, anyone?) with Americans in 2000 sending only around 35 texts per month. In 2010, 6.1 trillion texts were sent worldwide over the year. Now, text messaging is on the decline with the rise in – mostly free – messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage and Signal. The number of social media sites is vast and long gone are the days of Friends Reunited and MySpace. We agèd dinosaurs must appreciate that we cannot really keep up. It is very easy for us to mourn the perceived loss of face-to-face interaction but virtual interactions are now the norm, and we must accept it. I don’t think we should expend energy in trying to convince children not to communicate on Snapchat: instead, we should help them navigate the potential pitfalls of such communication.

I also believe we should engage openly and honestly about our own experiences of the internet and social media. Decrepit fossils though we are, most of us use the internet regularly, as well as occasionally interacting via social media. Let’s have regular conversations with the children in our care about things we’ve seen online, or any challenges we have faced. Perhaps you have felt the pressure to vet any photos posted of you at Aunt Jenny’s 70th birthday party: why not talk about issues around unrealistic, hyper-filtered, images that appear online? Maybe you have received a really unpleasant virtual communication from someone: use it as an opportunity to discuss why children don’t have to engage with unpleasantness, and why kindness in our interactions is important. Maybe you have accepted a friend request from someone claiming to be an old school friend, only to discover it’s a fake account: view that as a way in to discussing the dangers of interacting with strangers online.

Let’s also set clear, appropriate, boundaries for social media and internet use for the children in our care. This might look different for differently-aged children, and there is no real consensus across boarding schools on the parameters we should place on children’s digital engagement. My School has a very clear policy on phones, for example – until you reach Year 11, you have no access to a smartphone and there are restricted times at which you can use your phone until you are in the Sixth Form. There is broad support for this policy from the parent body; less from the pupils. (When there is a little moan from a boy in year 9, my classic response is to say “in my day, I didn’t have a mobile phone until I was 15 and, when I did finally get one, it was a little ‘brick’. When I wanted to meet a friend, I had to arrange a time and place and just hope they turned up”, blah, blah, blah. Of course, I am really showing myself to be antediluvian – I call a phone a “mobile phone”, for starters*.) Other Schools I have visited make use of smartphones to track children, be it their mental health or their whereabouts: they make use of wellbeing apps like Skodel to check in with children, and make use of scanning apps so that children can check in to classrooms and boarding houses. Whatever your School’s policy, it must be clear and unambiguous so that children know where the boundaries are.

Finally, education is – obviously – key. But let’s not fall into the trap of teaching only about the dangers of social media and internet interactions: let’s also engage children on the real benefits of this digital world they inhabit. It can be easy for us as caregivers to get sucked into the (many) depressing stories about the horrors of the metaverse and view it only as a perilous world of traps, snares and metaphorical shark-invested waters. It is, of course, essential that we tackle those pitfalls head on, but I do wonder whether our message will resonate more with the young people in our care if we balance it out with positive information about the benefits of being digital. The internet offers exciting new opportunities for learning, entertainment and communication. In my classes, my pupils can immediately look up a fact or statistic to support their learning – election turnout, party membership, levels of descriptive representation in the UK’s various Parliaments, what the impeachments of President Trump are really about, why a comma changes everything about the Second Amendment: all these things are at their fingertips. Lessons can be fast-paced, without the need for long-winded research. I can test knowledge and understanding quickly using Plickers, a digital card activity. Students can give engaging presentations using Prezi. Never before has access to news media been so instantaneous and straightforward. Tutorials on everything from male hairstyles to growing plants are a click of a button away. The internet really does bring opportunity.

We must warn children of the dangers of social media and internet use, of course – it would be irresponsible not to. But let’s do that regularly, informally, openly, and let’s acknowledge all the benefits being online brings. After all, this blog wouldn’t exist without the internet and you, dear reader, would have to find some other way to waste your time. You’re welcome.

*See above section on being a prehistoric person in this digital age.