This Analysis questions the use of screen time as unhealthy for youth education as well as senior care.
In Silicon Valley, time on screens is increasingly seen as unhealthy. Here, the popular elementary school is the local Waldorf School, which promises a back-to-nature, nearly screen-free education.
As cultures change, the new way can come to be seen as a mistake. Because it is different, there will be pluses and minuses, but we don’t always see the downsides right away. Over time we do learn that what we might have taken to only have an upside, actually has a downside too.
Such has been the case with changes brought on by changes in technology, since the first cities became possible through advances in irrigation that supported large scale farming.
Douglas Adams used to joke that “it was a mistake to come down out of the trees in the first place” . (paraphrasing). That’s funny because we are pretty sure coming down out of the trees wasn’t a big mistake.
Yet, history shows that once a technology becomes efficient, we as a species rarely return to the previous technology. Though we do still wonder if it was all a big mistake.
Humans are social creatures who depend on touch and human contact for all aspects of health and wellbeing. We will need to work hard to make sure we keep that part of our culture alive, despite hours of screen time.
One thing to note, current technology will not be the most advanced forever; it will be replaced in turn. We might find that we don’t use screens tomorrow in the way we use them today. See next post on Apple’s Augmented Reality efforts.