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| Might the young save us from technology’s dangers? | Might the young save us from technology’s dangers? |
| (4 months later) | |
| Letters | |
| Fri 6 Oct 2017 18.35 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 27 Nov 2017 15.49 GMT | |
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| The results of the survey that you report (Young people turning their backs on social media – study, 5 October) are fascinating when we consider that the children interviewed have grown up as “digital natives”, perhaps even announced to the world in utero through the sharing of scan pictures on Facebook, with children typically receiving their own tablets and phones in primary school. You wonder if they are yearning for the short period of time they may have had as young children before they were immersed in social media; or if their parents and teachers have told them of a bygone age (I’m 39 and it already feels crackly and black and white in my memory) when we spent our time meeting outside the cinema at 3pm, or hugging the home phone, or sitting on the wall singing songs and laughing as we watched the world go by. | The results of the survey that you report (Young people turning their backs on social media – study, 5 October) are fascinating when we consider that the children interviewed have grown up as “digital natives”, perhaps even announced to the world in utero through the sharing of scan pictures on Facebook, with children typically receiving their own tablets and phones in primary school. You wonder if they are yearning for the short period of time they may have had as young children before they were immersed in social media; or if their parents and teachers have told them of a bygone age (I’m 39 and it already feels crackly and black and white in my memory) when we spent our time meeting outside the cinema at 3pm, or hugging the home phone, or sitting on the wall singing songs and laughing as we watched the world go by. |
| Like many, I also have this creeping feeling that what we have now isn’t better – that we may all be in the throes of addiction (indeed the pings of notification have been compared to the thrill of the slot machine) and in need of rehab. As a charity that works to keep children safe wherever they roam (Kidscape prevents bullying and protects young lives), we are listening when they tell us they want to escape and that this doesn’t feel good. But I fear that as adults we are in equal need of rescue – and it may just well be that they are the generation to save us from our own monster.Lauren Seager-SmithChief executive officer, Kidscape | Like many, I also have this creeping feeling that what we have now isn’t better – that we may all be in the throes of addiction (indeed the pings of notification have been compared to the thrill of the slot machine) and in need of rehab. As a charity that works to keep children safe wherever they roam (Kidscape prevents bullying and protects young lives), we are listening when they tell us they want to escape and that this doesn’t feel good. But I fear that as adults we are in equal need of rescue – and it may just well be that they are the generation to save us from our own monster.Lauren Seager-SmithChief executive officer, Kidscape |
| • Your reporters make an intriguing comparison between Google’s new Pixel Buds translation device and the Babel Fish dreamed up by Douglas Adams in the 1970s (Google brings the Babel fish closer to your ear, 6 October). However, Adams goes on to note that “the poor Babel Fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation”. Thanks, Google, exactly what we need just now.Baz JuniperCombwich, Somerset | • Your reporters make an intriguing comparison between Google’s new Pixel Buds translation device and the Babel Fish dreamed up by Douglas Adams in the 1970s (Google brings the Babel fish closer to your ear, 6 October). However, Adams goes on to note that “the poor Babel Fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different cultures and races, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation”. Thanks, Google, exactly what we need just now.Baz JuniperCombwich, Somerset |
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| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |
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