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“Do not become the tools of your tools!” (smartphones and all)
Henry David Thoreau
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How to say it, John (Pa), Mary (Ma), and dear (daughter) Odeile…. ?
When, friends, I first visited your family, Odeile was present, there, the shining spirit that you (indeed every human being) are. During my last visit you were not present, and before that visit, as you may recall, a bit preoccupied, so to speak, with your smartphone while we were together. Your dear parents and my gazes met.
So it was, Gail, a few months later, before you finally told your dear daughter, Sara, to “put your smartphone away, look Mr. Weeks in the eyes, and say hello.”
“Hello” she said in the wink of an eye, was there and gone again.
An effort, Gail, it was, if fleeting, to distract your young one, Sara, from her con-trap-tion and turn her gaze from the virtual world that was consuming her to the real world that was there all around her to buoy here up. It took all the spunk I had, and presence of mind, to engage her on the tour I offered of Concord (MA), for many the heart and soul of the nation.
But, we appeared to do just that, hit it off, heart-to-heart. Your dear daughter and my gazes met with our parting words. That said, I’m sorry, Gail, very sorry to hear that the con-trap-tion succeeded in, indeed, trapping her — that her behavior became so unruly on account of the smartphone that you could no longer control her usage of it, or resultant behavior. I’m saddened, if not surprised, to hear that you had to seek help, that your little girl is no longer under your roof.
How to say it…?
Paul, by the time our paths crossed last month and you shared your own bewilderment, anger, sorrow, the pain… you didn’t need to say much about what you were going through with your own daughter and her con-trap-tion. When our gazes met, it was all clear (you are not alone; the tide mounts) — as was the fact that something needed to be said… offered at least, for those, as we say, with ears to hear.
What?
What can one not only say… but how to say it — in a way that makes sense, common/uncommon sense?
If parents, grandparents, elders understood what’s behind these electronic, “computational” devices, con-trap-tions (originally developed to wage war), they might think twice (to say the least) about putting such “weapons” in the hands of children, anyone, in fact, who does not entirely have their wits about them?
For those able to pause for a moment or two…. and consider… we are not talking about taking away our children’s freedom, but, in truth, the opposite: providing our children and the generations to come, with an actual foundation for becoming free, i.e. not “chained” to their con-trap-tions. As fashionable/mesmorizing as they have become.
We invite you to think twice about handing over these devices to your children not only for the reasons (addressed in the following columns, common/uncommon sense) that we, the public, are coming increasingly to understand, but also for other reasons (less recognized and considered) that have to do with what studies have shown to be the effects of the light glimmer and even the subtle heat that radiates from these blessed con-trap-tions into the eyes and skin of the young and growing organism/bodies of our children. Considerations of course that one and all are “free” (so to speak) to dismiss as…. you name it. Uncommon/common sense?
With that said, a final thought for this opening column, offering. Like tv before it, these electronic devices are not only great baby-sitters (hypnotists?), but they also come with a cost, not infrequently a steep and dear cost, at noted in the foregoing.
That is, not only are a large and growing number of our children k i d n a p p e d by these devices/con-trap-tions, but it appears that a growing number of parents (who have the opportunity otherwise to set the examples?) appear to be h i j a c k e d by the same. Can one say?
For those with eyes to see, it is quite a world/creation that we find ourselves in the midst of.
My neighbor (H.D) Thoreau, whose 200th birth anniversary we celebrate this year, speaks to this reckoning in words that you’re invited, friends, to take to heart. For the personal accounts that began this column are, indeed, true, all so true.
Upon returning home from checking out the newfangelest technological contraption in town (neighbor Blood’s telescope) Henry David was not unduly impressed. In his journal that evening he penned a word of caution to the ages:
The naked eye may easily see farther than the armed. It depends on who looks through it. No superior telescope to this has been invented. In those big ones the recoil is equal to the force of the discharge.”
[Emphasis added] Journal, January 21, 1853
So it is, can one say?
Every time man and machine, our humanity and technology interface, there is a “recoil” (drawback) that may, in fact, exceed, the seeming advance (outreach) — unless that interfacing is conscious, as opposed to convenient, seemingly so. Common/uncommon sense…?
“Let us not become the tools of our tools,” Concord’s native son went on to caution.
If we don’t understand and master these technologies, devices, con-trap- tions, as adults on behalf of our children and the generations to come, do we doubt, friends, that they will continue to master us?
Make sense, common/uncommon sense…?
Your own thoughts, experiences, insights are most welcome.
Con-cord-e,
Stuart Sinclair Weeks