I was talking with my brother-in-law yesterday evening. We got talking about technology and screen-time. I voiced some of my concerns with giving smartphones to our children. I said, “giving a smartphone to a child is like giving them a Ferrari when they just got their Learner’s Permit. My brother-in-law added, “yeah, giving them a Ferrari in L.A.” We both had a good laugh at this ridiculous analogy, and yet . . . this analogy is probably not far off.
What is it exactly that we’re giving our kids when we give them a smart-phone? Is it access to the contacts of few friends and neighbors? Is it a modest school library of books and literature? Is it a year-long pass to the local movie theater?
Of course not! We are literally giving our children the ability to access social media platforms with millions of potential contacts. We are giving them access to millions and millions of videos, thousands upon thousands of games, and the vastest library of information mankind has ever known! Woah!! Now, is it incredible to have access to “Ferrari’s” that fit nicely into our pockets? Yes! Absolutely! Is it awe-inspiring to have access to more information on our smartphone than is contained in a thousand libraries? Without a doubt! I hope we can begin to appreciate the incredible opportunities we have from the digital technology available to us! At the same time, the need to lay a groundwork for the safe and effective use of our digital technology is huge, and it’s urgent!
Think about driving. When anyone is learning to drive, what sort of conditions are they placed in? Do we place a 15 or 16 year old youth behind the wheel of a Ferrari in downtown L.A. and say “go at it kid, figure it out.” Of course not! That would be ludicrous! Bear with me a moment as I describe how I learned to drive.
When I was learning to drive and trying to get my driver’s license, I had to pass a written exam before I could even sit in the driver’s seat of a car. After passing the written exam, I was only allowed to drive a car with an instructor in a parking lot the size of a football field. Only after proving I could parallel park, back up in a figure eight, and knew how to use the blinker, was I allowed to drive around town with the instructor. Oh and by the way, these cars I trained in were low-end cars. No Corvette’s, Audi’s, Lexus’s, or SUV’s of any sort. These were simple, base-model cars.
Now I know my experience in learning to drive is not unique. These circumstances and this process is how most of us learn to drive. The risks are minimized and a training process followed to teach people how to drive for the first time. So what if we used a similar approach to teach and train our children on how to use wisely and safely use their smart-phones and media devices?
Ferrari in L.A. Part II . . .
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