Through the Lens
Through the Lens
On the heels of our successful homecoming and Halloween celebrations, faculty gathered on November 1st for our in-service day to focus on two important topics impacting our school community: curriculum and social media. The morning was spent in cohorts—divided by grade and subject matter—to review the scope and sequence of our curriculum. While this revisiting of teaching and content is critical to honoring our pursuit of excellence, it is our afternoon agenda I would like to share more about.
After a brief lunch, faculty gathered in the Simon Ham-Peto theater for a screening of the documentary film The Social Dilemma. The film, recently awarded two Emmys, examines projects by the Center for Humane Technology (CHT) and its quest to increase public awareness of the existential risks posed by social media. At the conclusion of the viewing, faculty were asked to return to their groups to discuss our role in educating our community about these risks.
Last school year, I published a blog that analyzed our student’s use of social media through the lens of our Core Values. The response to the post was positive, but the needle remained unmoved. Many people expressed their pleasure and agreement with the general premise that unfettered use of social media undermines the very values that The Meadows School seeks to instill. Despite that positive reception, there is no evidence that anything has been accomplished. Nearly a year later, our nation’s struggle with social media has only worsened. We now know, thanks to the efforts of people at the CHT and Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, that the worst-case scenarios presented in The Social Dilemma are not only accurate but have been willfully ignored. It is no longer conjecture to say that social media is killing us. What is left to be determined is what our response to that knowledge will be. On further reflection, I now realize that last year’s blog post might have been informative, but it was most certainly not prescriptive. Perhaps what was needed were more explicit suggestions for how to move away from our reliance on, and use of, these tools.
Nearly a year ago, I attended my daughter’s Kindergarten graduation in Florida. It was an elegant affair filmed by the staff. Madeline stood up on the stage in her white dress surrounded by her classmates on what was considered the most significant day of her academic career to date. I had cause to wander behind the stage to assist with a sound cable, and I took the opportunity to glance out and see what those young graduates were seeing from the stage in their big moment. And I saw phones. Hundreds of phones staring straight back at these young students. In that moment I understood that we are raising a generation of students who are conditioned to know that a moment is really important, not by the smiling faces of proud parents but by the recognition of the lens of mom or dad’s cell phone staring back at them. It matters little that the moment is already being documented for posterity by the school. Our conditioned reaction is to record that moment on a personal device. While we raise a generation accustomed to viewing us through our lens, we are becoming the first generation to experience these seminal moments through a screen as well. It is an opportunity lost for our children and for ourselves. If we want our children to grow into healthy users of their technology, we must first demonstrate that we have grown in the same manner. We need to interrupt the thought process that puts the device between us and our children in these precious moments.
Raising ethical users of technology is a process. We need to familiarize ourselves with the tools that our children are using and take the time to understand that these tools are not neutral. They have an agenda. That doesn’t mean that they necessarily need to stop using the tools themselves. It simply means that they must understand the implications to their well-being that the use of these tools entails. The starting point is to become ethical users ourselves.
In addition to making more purposeful choices about our use of technology and social media, the Center for Humane Technology offers helpful ways to reset our relationship with these tools. These steps include turning off notifications, removing toxic applications from devices, and downloading tools that help us to take control of our relationship with our phones. These steps and many more can be found here.
Just as our faculty took time earlier this month to “update our profiles” around issues like social media, we must do the same in our role as parents. Working together to inform and raise a generation of ethical technology users is a critical step in our pursuit of excellence.
Joseph Carver
Chief Innovation Officer
Last school year, I published a blog that analyzed our student’s use of social media through the lens of our Core Values. The response to the post was positive, but the needle remained unmoved. Many people expressed their pleasure and agreement with the general premise that unfettered use of social media undermines the very values that The Meadows School seeks to instill. Despite that positive reception, there is no evidence that anything has been accomplished. Nearly a year later, our nation’s struggle with social media has only worsened. We now know, thanks to the efforts of people at the CHT and Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, that the worst-case scenarios presented in The Social Dilemma are not only accurate but have been willfully ignored. It is no longer conjecture to say that social media is killing us. What is left to be determined is what our response to that knowledge will be. On further reflection, I now realize that last year’s blog post might have been informative, but it was most certainly not prescriptive. Perhaps what was needed were more explicit suggestions for how to move away from our reliance on, and use of, these tools.
Nearly a year ago, I attended my daughter’s Kindergarten graduation in Florida. It was an elegant affair filmed by the staff. Madeline stood up on the stage in her white dress surrounded by her classmates on what was considered the most significant day of her academic career to date. I had cause to wander behind the stage to assist with a sound cable, and I took the opportunity to glance out and see what those young graduates were seeing from the stage in their big moment. And I saw phones. Hundreds of phones staring straight back at these young students. In that moment I understood that we are raising a generation of students who are conditioned to know that a moment is really important, not by the smiling faces of proud parents but by the recognition of the lens of mom or dad’s cell phone staring back at them. It matters little that the moment is already being documented for posterity by the school. Our conditioned reaction is to record that moment on a personal device. While we raise a generation accustomed to viewing us through our lens, we are becoming the first generation to experience these seminal moments through a screen as well. It is an opportunity lost for our children and for ourselves. If we want our children to grow into healthy users of their technology, we must first demonstrate that we have grown in the same manner. We need to interrupt the thought process that puts the device between us and our children in these precious moments.
Raising ethical users of technology is a process. We need to familiarize ourselves with the tools that our children are using and take the time to understand that these tools are not neutral. They have an agenda. That doesn’t mean that they necessarily need to stop using the tools themselves. It simply means that they must understand the implications to their well-being that the use of these tools entails. The starting point is to become ethical users ourselves.
In addition to making more purposeful choices about our use of technology and social media, the Center for Humane Technology offers helpful ways to reset our relationship with these tools. These steps include turning off notifications, removing toxic applications from devices, and downloading tools that help us to take control of our relationship with our phones. These steps and many more can be found here.
Just as our faculty took time earlier this month to “update our profiles” around issues like social media, we must do the same in our role as parents. Working together to inform and raise a generation of ethical technology users is a critical step in our pursuit of excellence.
Joseph Carver
Chief Innovation Officer
- All School
- Technology