Is There a Terminal Velocity for Youth & Digital? With the world and culture accelerating ever faster, fuelled by digital, what effect is it having on youth?

[omaidhiwaizi]

The seed for this idea was planted when I attended a talk about the effects of social media on the young, at my children?s Steiner-Waldorf school. A teacher remarked that he believed the onslaught of digital was creating a burnt out generation ? strung out, dead eyed kids without a real sense of themselves or the world. Working for a digital agency, I naturally objected, but later thought, what if the continuing increase of speed and intensity of modern life driven by technology was somehow hitting a physiological or psychological barrier? A terminal velocity where they can go no faster, instead heating up and burning out? Are there ways we can keep pace with our changing environment? Or could there be an evolutionary leap in response?

What do you think?

If only Caxton had never got going with that printing press! We could all be getting our information at the speed of a monk copying with a quill...

Of course, steiner waldorf teachers do not have a vested interest in discouraging screentime, oh no.

Why would the ability to access information quickly give you less of a sense of the world? It could give you more of a sense of the world. Instead of reading about rare birds nesting in exotic places you can now watch them live on web cams, you can explore the streets of Timbuktu via google earth, talk with people on the other side of the world and peep out through their windows with Skype. See scans of historical documents and find out exactly what was happening from first hand sources. Perhaps we need to learn to pick and chose the information we access so we don't suffer from information overload, and learn to be discriminating about what we read, but that is easily done.

An evolutionary leap in response would only be possible if somehow only those capable of keeping up with technology lived long enough to produce children. I hope that is not ever likely to be the case...

What do I think? I think that you as a marketing/planning director at SapientNitro you're hoping to use mumsnet to boost votes for your SXSW talk being accepted. You further hope that if you do get to do your talk, some of SXSW's coolness will then rub off on SapientNitro and its services.

And you're hoping you can do all this for free.

By the way in your description for your SXSW sales pitch talk, you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that "digital" is a noun rather than an adjective. You might want to get someone to proof-read and correct that.

Hi Snorbs. Nice to meet you - you seem to be good at using Google!

I actually think this is a really important topic which I've put a load of my own time in to research, sparked by thinking about my own kids.

I've already presented the content in London and would like to spread the word wider.

Based on your profile, I would expect you to be interested too. But perhaps not.

Have a great day!
Omaid

One doesn't have to be particularly "good at using Google" to drop a few search terms into a box. Is it really that hard? It is, after all, the digital age.

Don't get me wrong, I think that the concepts behind what you're talking about are worth discussing. As, indeed, many people have been doing for quite a long time now.

But I do question both your motives (your links to SapientNitro aren't exactly a secret) and your methods (mumsnet frowns on people trying to drum up support for online votes and polls). Oh, and your use of the word "digital" as a noun. But I already said that.

Hello OP
Afraid we don't allow members to canvass for votes so we will be deleting this thread shortly - very best of luck with the conference though.
Thanks
MNHQ

Hi OlympiaMumsnet (MNHQ)
thanks for the heads up. I fully understand. Can I edit the thread to remove the link - is that possible?
Omaid

Hi there
WE have removed the link.

I think this is Luddism. I hate the way that technology is often depicted as evil, and "my child doesn't have a computer" stuff. Why? Are you wanting them to be a social outcast?

Myds 18 is a perfectly rounded normal and intelligent person. He is addicted to his phone and computer. He has made friends all over the city due to online gaming. It has opened hos social world up in a way mine neverwas.

However, I haveread that the Digital age is like the second industrial revolution and as yet people haven't fully learnt how to control the impactit has on their lives.

However I think the future is exciting and am jealous of ds and dd, in that I didn't have the fun they are going to have with online stuff