I am reading this book at the moment. It is highly pertinent to the technological times we live in where the author says’ always distracted, we lose the capacity for solitude and we‘are more distracted in each other’s company, and we know it’. The author teaches in the Social Science department of MIT and is also a clinical psychologist.
We are probably allowing technology particularly our Smartphone to become master/mistress of our lives. This example to children means they want those phones too. But they are much more vulnerable than we are, and as recent radio programmes are asking should anyone under 18 years of age have a smartphone? If it’s about keeping in touch well, then a simple phone where you can call, and text is enough. Young people who have a lower self-esteem are more susceptible to the dangers of those who seek to be their ‘friends’. It’s up to us the adults to protect them.
This book looks at the effects of technology in a non-judgmental but very readable and highly informative way. I invite adults to read it and then by example share what we have learned with children.
Fr. Tony
