Seeking Digital Balance

No secret there.

 

So how do we maximize the joys and minimize the perils?

 

“The ‘B’ word: balance,” says Katie Greer, a well-respected, much-in-demand Internet and digital safety authority who conducted workshops for Collegiate’s 6^th and 8^th graders this past Thursday.

 

“How can we extract every wonderful nugget from technology but do it in a way that we’re not driving 80 miles-an-hour and texting? Or using it to be mean to someone? Or using it so that we deprive our kids of certain life skills? It’s not about taking technology out of our lives. It’s about helping kids develop a healthy relationship with it.”

 

That’s all good and well, I mentioned as we talked between session, but what’s the answer when so many folks seem leashed to their devices?

 

“It starts from the top down,” Greer responded. “Even though we’re more connected than ever before, as adults we need to be able to put our phones down and make sure our kids do as well. Parents need to make a mandatory off-time: places in the house, times of day, maybe even days of the week, where the devices are totally off and out of sight, out of mind, not just flipped over. Studies have shown that it’s a wonderful break for our brain. It’s what we need to do to get back on track.”

 

The founder of Boston-based KL Greer Consulting, Greer has served as Director of Internet Safety for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, as an intelligence analyst for the Massachusetts State Police, and as a resource for numerous national media outlets including CNN, USA Today, and Time.

 

This was her fourth visit to Collegiate. Her presentations to students as well as parents in an evening session were well researched, fast-paced, and passionately delivered. She rarely takes her foot off the gas pedal. She pulls no punches. Her message is crystal clear.

 

“We’ve really gotten away from healthy use of technology,” she said. “I could rattle off a million statistics from organizations like the American Association of Pediatrics or the American Heart Association about how technology is impacting our lives in a negative way, not because it’s bad but because we rely on it way, way, way too much.”

 

She addressed, specifically, social media and adherence to the time-honored principle of think-before-you-speak.

 

“When we post things online,” she said, “we need to consider, Is this a good thing to say? Is this a good thing to do? Will this hurt someone’s feelings? Will someone take offense to this? Technology has robbed us of that critical stop-and-think time that we as humans need to make good, well-rounded decisions. I urge kids to be thoughtful and intentional with their use of technology.”

 

What do you find kids are worried about? I asked.

 

“About what their friends see,” she said. “They worry if they don’t have enough followers or if they’re good enough at an (online) game so they don’t embarrass themselves. They’re at a point in their lives where they’re trying to establish their identity. What people say matters. People’s opinions matter.”

 

You travel the world advocating for appropriate use of technology, I said. Has the situation worsened over the past two or three years?

“A thousand percent,” she replied. “Big time.”

Then what will “mission accomplished” look like to you? I asked.

 

“We don’t have enough positivity in the world,” she said. “I would like to ideally have everyone use technology as a tool that can help them and help others, not as a crutch. How can we make someone’s world a bit better? It doesn’t have to be significant. It doesn’t have to be raising millions of dollars. It just has to be tweeting something nice or saying something nice: any way we can use it for good.”

  -- Weldon Bradshaw