Jesse Miller’s talk had interesting points but was also pretty intense; it left me with some bigger questions around how we hold teachers to extremely high standards (much higher than police or health care workers, to name a couple…), the personal/professional impact of the digital footprint this cohort grew up with, and how once a teacher decides to be a teacher, that is now their entire existence and personality, with no space to be anything other than that.
Though what I want to reflect on most was Miller’s complete rejection that technology is physically/mentally degrading for youth, adolescents & adults alike. He had some news articles and papers to back up his standpoint, but he neglected to share or even mention that there are hundreds of hours of research into how technology such as mobile devices, tv, and video games truly is addictive. One quick search on google scholar gives a completely different story than Miller was preaching: there are pages upon pages of scholarly articles backing up addictions to internet use, mobile use & video games, the impact of technology addiction on “challenging behaviours”, treatments for technology addiction, how this can change our lives, it’s connections to anxiety & depression, and the list continues on.
So sure, we can agree to disagree, as most professionals do. But there is an ethic of care that I believe is being neglected if your career in tech doesn’t include questioning the effects of said tech, especially over longer periods of time for which we don’t have the research yet. All this being said, I respect Miller’s approach to open and challenging conversations with adolescents around technology use, as one of the most important aspects of teaching is ensuring learners are safe, supported, and encouraged to bloom into the best version of themselves. Technology will only skyrocket from here – it’s how we decide to interact with it that matters most.