I don’t normally share longer essays, but this one is worth the read: “How Digital Youth Became Unhappy–and Dangerous–Adults.”
The gist: Well-off parents, especially those working in technology, LIMIT screen time for their kids. The article goes so far as to compare screens’ effects on the brain to crack cocaine.
We’ve got the addiction ourselves, don’t we? Gallup just reported that we are reading fewer books than ever before since the survey began in 1990. That’s through a pandemic where we were stuck at home, theoretically with more time to read.
And we, like our employees, are short on patience. After the immediate response of our screens, dealing with traffic, customer lines and the messiness that is human interaction grates on our last nerves.
Readers of this workplace blog should be interested for at least two reasons:
- If you have kids, ween them off the drug.
- If you have young employees, know that they are coming to you with this addiction.
We are becoming technology dependent and unable to “think critically,” which is a modern way of saying we are not logical. That spells disaster for life, let alone employment.
It’s a concern managers keep bringing to me and one of the reasons I’m writing “The Lost Tools of Business.” I’m one of those “Great Books types” the essay mentions. There is hope. Here’s an excerpt that explains the dangers and hope in more detail.